TuftsDaily12-04-2012

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THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts receives silver recycling award by

Xander Landen

Daily Staff Writer

Tufts’ recycling and waste reduction programs were honored last month at MassRecycle’s 17th Annual Recycling Awards Ceremony.

Competing in a category against other institutions of higher learning, Tufts beat out bronze medalist Clark University to receive the silver, placing second to Harvard University.

The ceremony took place at the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Boston, and Tufts Waste Reduction Program Manager Dawn Quirk and Director of Facilities Technical Services and Energy Manager Betsy Isenstein accepted the award on behalf of the university.

A peer review committee narrowed down the nomination pool to three finalists, using a point system that evaluated each nominee based on categories including innovation, reduce, reuse, recycle and organics. Finalists were granted 30-minute interviews, and final rankings were determined by the committee and announced at the awards ceremony.

Emily Geosling-Newman, program coordinator for

TUFTSDAILY.COM

tuesday, December 4, 2012

VOLUME LXIV, NUMBER 55

the Tufts Institute of the Environment, attributes some of the credit for the university’s second-place finish to University President Anthony Monaco’s strong emphasis on sustainability.

“Tony Monaco’s passion for sustainability has helped people realize how to make less of an impact on the environment while at Tufts,” she said.

New campus-wide initiatives and student organizations promoting sustainability are what gave the university an edge in the competition, according to Quirk.

“I think what really set us apart is our Eco-Reps program and the continual dorm recycling initiative,” she said.

The volume of recycled items within dorms has increased significantly over the past several years as the message of sustainability has taken hold, Quirk noted.

Paper, which ranks first among the most commonly recycled items at Tufts, is associated with economic as well as environmental benefits, she said.

“Items that we recycle are commodities that are important in the market place,” Quirk said. “When we recycle paper, companies buy our

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

President Monaco sheds light on vision for Tufts

by Jenna

Buckle

Daily Editorial Board

As University President Anthony Monaco moves through his second year at Tufts, he has become a familiar face on the Hill for students, staff and faculty. Settled into a newly renovated Gifford House and continuing to make himself accessible to the community through social media, Monaco rang in the 2012-2013 academic year with plans to resume progress on several initiatives and steer the university forward with new ones.

With his third semester in office now nearing its end, Monaco sits at the helm of various large-scale projects aimed at positioning Tufts for the future, including a universitywide strategic plan and a financial aid initiative.

He has also brought leadership in the face of many student concerns this fall, ranging from the university endowment’s investment profile to sexual assault.

A vision and a plan

Along with Provost and Senior Vice President David Harris, who assumed his posi-

Virginia Bledsoe / The Tufts Daily

University President Anthony Monaco sat down with the Daily in see MONACO, page 2 October to discuss the progress of his third semester at Tufts.

see MASSRECYCLE, page 2

FCHP’s annual party spreads holiday cheer to foster children by

Menghan Liu

Daily Editorial Board

Kyra Sturgill / The Tufts Daily

Tufts welcomed over 200 foster children and their families to campus for the 25th anniversary of the Foster Children’s Holiday Party this weekend.

Over 200 foster children and their families visited the Hill this Sunday for the 25th annual Foster Children’s Holiday Party (FCHP) in Alumnae Hall.

The party, supported by the Tufts University Alumni Association, featured food, arts and crafts, a “Book Nook,” photos with Jumbo, a magician and entertainment from student performance groups such as Traveling Treasure Trunk, BlackOut, Tufts Bhangra team, sQ! and the Jumbo Jugglers.

Each foster child also received a gift from Santa, in addition to a family board game, pajamas and books.

“The inspiration was to help serve an underserved population of foster children and provide some holiday cheer and a nice outlet at the holiday time for kids who typically do not have that,” FCHP Committee Co-Chair Dan Kaplan (LA ’96) said.

Working in conjunction with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF), FCHP staff cooperates with students, faculty, staff and alumni to plan this annual community event.

Inside this issue

“What’s really nice about this event is how willing people and organizations are to chip in,” Samantha Snitow (LA ’02), assistant director of student and young alumni programs and 2012 FCHP staff liaison, said.

The FCHP committee began as an offshoot group of Tufts Alumni Boston, when Tufts alumna Lynn Brody (LA ’87) began working with the Malden office of the DCF as a way to give back to the local community, according to DCF Coordinator Christine Conlon (LA ’93), who began participating in FCHP when she was still an undergraduate.

According to Snitow, local business sponsors such as Bertucci’s, Pepsi and J.P. Licks donated all of the food for this year’s FCHP, while Facilities Services and Tufts’ UGL Unicco janitorial staff donated their services. Books were donated

by Scholastic, whose president is Tufts Trustee Hugh Roome (A ’74, G ’74, F ’80).

Alumni networked with friends and coworkers to contribute, whether through monetary gifts, baked goods or wrapping paper drives.

“A lot of [volunteers], they

don’t even blink an eye,” Snitow said. “They’re just happy to help.”

Tufts students also had the opportunity to volunteer. FCHP last Wednesday hosted its annual Wrap Night, at which students and alumni gathered to prepare and wrap the gifts for the event.

According to Snitow, Assistant Director of Athletics John Casey recruited over 40 baseball players this year to help wrap and haul hundreds of bags of gifts, books and crafts.

“What we really like about this event is it’s a really good opportunity for students to meet alumni and staff in a very casual environment,” she said Joseph’s Transportation donates a small bus every year to pick up homeless single mothers and their children who otherwise would not be able to attend FCHP, according to Snitow.

“It’s the unexpected efforts and surprises from different people and organizations that make such a difference to foster children’s families and parents,” she said.

“It’s just amazing how Tufts has done this [party] for 25 see FOSTER, page 2

Today’s sections

President Monaco discusses Twitter, TCF and more in the Daily’s Q & A.

It might not be family friendly, but “The League” is uproarious comedy.

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts & Living Comics

1 3 5 7

Editorial | Letters Op-Ed Classifieds Sports

8 9 10 Back

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News

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

MassRecycle recognizes Tufts’ sustainability initiatives MASSRECYCLE

continued from page 1

recycled paper. So it’s not only environmentally altruistic to recycle, but important for the economy.”

Tufts Dining Services is also one of the most sustainable college dining programs

in the country, according to Quirk.

“I had actually hoped to nominate Tufts Dining for an award, but this year, MassRecycle changed the requirements that would have been necessary to do so,” she said. “They needed data that

we would not have been able to attain.”

Tufts was one of the first college campuses to support a composting initiative, which began in its dining halls, according to GeoslingNewman. The university in the spring of 2010 was also

Meagan Maher / The Tufts Daily

MassRecycle, a non-profit recycling coalition, presented Tufts with a silver award during the organization’s 17th Annual Recycling Awards Ceremony.

one of the first to go “trayless,” she added.

The Office of Sustainability (OOS) still has room to improve, according to Quirk, and is currently working to increase the reuse of dorm room items. The OOS this year created a FreeCycle program that allows students to drop off and pick up unwanted reusable items at the FreeCycle stations at any time during the school year. FreeCycle items were also made available to new students this year during orientation.

Geosling-Newman nominated the university for the award this year, providing quarterly data regarding quantity of waste and recycling, as well as descriptions of the programs at Tufts that have increased campus sustainability.

“I decided that Tufts deserved recognition for the great recycling program it had,” she said.

One such high-impact program is Tufts Recycles!, which was launched in 1990, according to Isenstein.

“The Tufts Recyles! program provides infrastructure to support recycling on all campuses with a goal of making it easy for our community to recycle,” she said. “As a community, we need to make sure that we are doing so to the very best of our ability.”

Monaco speaks on sexual assault, video security, financial aid MONACO

continued from page 1

tion on July 1, Monaco debuted a 10-year strategic plan to the Tufts community in early October. He and Harris have since convened working groups and committees comprised of faculty, staff and students to help shape the content of the plan.

Monaco explained that, although specific schools within the university have independently launched strategic plans in the past, this marks the first time that the administration has spearheaded the development of a strategy for Tufts as a whole. “[Tufts has] never done a university-wide strategic plan where you try to think about the missions, the values, the goals and objectives of the university looking five to 10 years out, bring that vision into the present and think about the things you need to do to get there,” he said.

The plan targets areas such as teaching and learning, research, the university’s impact on society, active citizenship, public service, entrepreneurship, innovation, online technology and the student experience, Monaco said.

“Where do we want to place Tufts in enhancing our residential teaching mission, as well as thinking about ways in which we can engage the wider world using online technology, either by joining something like Coursera or edX or some other bigger MOOC [massive open online course]?” he said. “These are questions that we’re asking our faculty and students and trying to get a perspective and a direction of travel.”

Monaco cited improving the student experience both inside and outside of the classroom as one of the biggest challenges the strategic plan will tackle, adding that he hopes to expand programming for underclassmen in particular. He referred to the Bridge to Liberal Arts Success at Tufts (BLAST) program, which piloted this semester and provided academic support to select-

ed incoming freshmen in the School of Arts and Sciences, as an example of headway towards this goal.

“I think there’s a number of areas of student development that we need to think about throughout the freshman and sophomore year, areas around diversity, sustainability, sexual misconduct, sexual assault, alcohol, research integrity, what it’s like to live in an academic residential hall,” Monaco said.

While many of these policies and issues are addressed during freshman orientation, he said that the discourse surrounding these aspects of student life should not be limited to the first week of an undergraduate’s Tufts career.

“Maybe there’s a way we could group those students together throughout that time, have discussions focused on some of those areas and provide programming which allows them to develop their own skills and education in these important areas, which would improve the whole campus environment and the experience here at Tufts,” Monaco said.

However, he said that much of this programming would hinge on restructuring the residence halls to include more study and group meeting spaces. The university renovated dorms including South Hall and Latin Way over the summer, but those projects served to update each dorm’s facilities rather than completely redesign them, Monaco added.

“I don’t think it’ll be solved in the strategic plan process — it’s a long-term vision — but I do think that we need to look at that whole area and decide what we want to achieve in the future for Tufts students that live here on campus,” he said.

Tackling finances Although Monaco still enjoys engaging in activities on campus, whether by attending student performances or training with the Tufts Marathon Team,

this semester he spent more time traveling off campus in an effort to boost university fundraising.

“Last year, without David Harris here as the provost, I felt I had to spend a lot of time getting to know the Tufts community and leading the academic mission at the same time that I was doing the external work,” he said. “So, now that David is here and pushing forward things like the strategic plan, I think it will allow me to spend more time on the external side of the job in the sense of fundraising.”

This comes on the heels of the launch of a new financial aid initiative that aims to increase the total amount of financial aid available to incoming students.

Monaco hopes that, in turn, the initiative will add to the socioeconomic, cultural and ethnic diversity of the student body.

Over the course of two years, the campaign aims to raise $25 million for the endowment that is designated for financial aid, according to Monaco. The university plans to match gifts of at least $100,000 contributed to the endowment’s scholarship fund.

“The whole thing will shift us into a more competitive position and help drive the diversity that we want to achieve,” he said.

In an interview with the Daily in March, Monaco said he wanted to implement a need-blind policy by the end of his tenure at Tufts, but acknowledged that this would require a more sizable endowment. The Office of Admissions currently operates on a need-sensitive basis, considering the applicant’s financial need when making admissions decisions.

The start of this academic year has signaled a shift in focus.

Monaco asserted that at this time, he would rather work to expand financial aid than pursue a need-blind policy.

“I’m not sure I would set it as a goal to be need-blind because it’s hard to attain, and also hard to maintain,” he said.

The anonymous monetary

gift that allowed Tufts to temporarily adopt a need-blind program in 2007 and 2008, Monaco said, was a sum that was supposed to be spent instead of put to the endowment.

“And so when the money was spent, we found ourselves unable to maintain need-blind [admissions],” he said.

Concerns over the endowment’s investment profile have gripped the Hill as well this fall.

The Responsible Endowment Collective (REC), a student group lobbying for Tufts to divest from fossil fuel companies, met with administrators in October to discuss its petition.

Monaco recognized REC’s demands, but emphasized that the group’s campaign may be too far-reaching.

“We don’t invest particularly in any single [company],” he said.

“Most of our funds are either fixed-income, private or public equity, and they’re managed assets, so it would be quite complex to consider even how you would ever go in and divest from fossil fuels.”

Monaco urged REC to bring a well-researched proposal to the Board of Trustees’ Investment Committee, which manages the endowment’s investments.

“But I think in the end it is going to be very, very difficult to achieve the aims that the students want,” he said.

Hot topics on the Hill The Oct. 17 publication of a former Amherst College student’s account of sexual assault in The Amherst Student newspaper sparked a conversation on campus about the Tufts administration’s accessibility in the case of sexual misconduct.

The university over the summer expanded and revised its sexual assault policy and adjudication process. Monaco emphasized the importance of educating the student body about sexual misconduct.

“I know that the [Office of Equal Opportunity], the [Counseling

Alumni help with Foster Holiday Party foster continued from page 1

years for the foster children,” Marilyn Smith, DCF liaison to the Malden office, added.

To celebrate the milestone, the committee organized its first back-to-school picnic for foster children in August, giving away backpacks full of school supplies donated by alumni, Snitow said.

“This is my favorite event of the year,” Conlon said. “I’ve gotten my own kids involved in it. This party to me is just a huge way that we say thank you and give [these children and their foster parents] one afternoon where they can relax, enjoy music and enjoy these children in the holiday spirit.”

Snitow explained that any extra gifts are donated to the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, while leftover food is given to the Medford Family Life Education Center and books are saved for next year.

She added that the FCHP is the culmination of the Alumni Association’s goals.

“It’s students, it’s alumni, it’s active citizenship,” Snitow said. “It’s about having a good time and serving the community.”

and Mental Health Services] and the Health Services have been working to try to explain the new policy and make sure that the information is out there,” he said.

He hopes in the future a reduction in the number of sexual assault incidents on campus will stem from additional focused discussions that could take place during students’ freshman and sophomore years, Monaco said, highlighting the administration’s commitment to the issue.

“We certainly take it quite seriously, and we want to have a system that allows people to come forward when they have had such an experience, that they feel supported and can make accusations if they feel they want to do so,” he said.

In addition, students have been involved in debates about privacy following an announcement that the Department of Public and Environmental Safety will be installing a video security system on campus as early as next semester.

Monaco voiced support for the system and explained that Public Safety based their proposal on evidence that cameras previously set up in Cousens Gymnasium have helped deter crime.

“Now I think, as far as I understand it, these are not going to be someone sitting with a deck full of monitors watching Tufts students go about their daily lives,” he said. “This is just on a recording basis, so if there was an assault or if there was a theft or someone got into a dorm room ... [Public Safety] could go back — these things usually record for 30 days — and review the tapes, and that should help them catch the culprits.”

He suggested that concerns over invasion of privacy might be due to misinformation, clarifying that students will not be under 24-hour surveillance.

“And we couldn’t afford to do that anyway. It’s very expensive to have that kind of outfit,” Monaco said.

Features

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tuftsdaily.com

University President Anthony Monaco talks TCF, Twitter, fitness

Yuri Chang | I hate you, but I love you

Diversity, Dewick-Carmichael debate among topics discussed in exclusive interview by

The Tufts Daily Editorial Board

In his second academic year at Tufts, University President Anthony Monaco has set his sights on the universitywide strategic plan, some details of which are outlined in a story on the front page of today’s Daily. When the Daily had the opportunity to sit down with President Monaco in his office in Ballou Hall, he also commented on topics including his workout schedule at the new Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center, the tenuous status of Tufts Christian Fellowship and his passion for social media.

The Tufts Daily: At a Senate meeting [on October 22] you talked about diversity initiatives, about being datadriven and that we have a needle that needs to rise. Can you explain our goals for diversity?

Anthony Monaco: I know that despite all the hard work of the previous administration and the huge amount of money raised for financial aid, if you look at the data over the last 10 years for most metrics of diversity, whether it’s students, faculty or staff, the needle has been flat and in some cases has even decreased slightly. That tells me that we need to do more. We need to set policies and then go back to this data and see how we’re doing, and see if we can push the needle in the direction we want to go.

TD: Something else that’s been a hot topic on campus right now is TCF being defunded and derecognized by the TCU Judiciary. This is not the first time that there have been issues with this group. What are your thoughts on the situation?

AM: I think it’s a complex issue because it’s a balance between the regulations about student clubs having a non-discriminatory policy and then having the diversity in religious freedom for a club to determine their own regulations about who is a member and what they believe.

So it’s a complex issue and it’s a balance between those two rights or freedoms. And I think at the moment, all I would say is that, you know, the Judiciary has made a ruling, that TCF can now — they had an option of changing, they decided not to — but now they’re going to appeal.

And the next level is to go to the student life faculty board, which will decide which way this goes. I’m going to, at the moment, stay a little bit outside the process because I believe we have a proper process at the moment, and I’d like to see it run its course... hopefully we’ll get to a place which allows the TCF to retain their rights as a club, as well as somehow make our discrimination policy not be acted against.

TD: How do you see the role of athletics on campus evolving with the construction of the new [Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness] facility?

AM: Well, the obvious thing is that a brand-new facility like that really draws students, faculty and staff in.

You go down there, and you just see the larger number of people going down there to work out in this nice new facility.

I think what I got from the student athletes, and those who use it for club sports, is the sense of pride that we

Virginia Bledsoe / The Tufts Daily

In an exclusive interview with the Daily, University President Anthony Monaco discussed Tufts’ diversity goals, the status of Tufts Christian Fellowship and his dining preferences. finally have a facility that is deserving of a university like Tufts. At the same time, I think it offers all the Tufts community a way of keeping fit with good facilities, modern equipment, we’re even thinking of creating a Wellness Center down there, which can have health benefits. I think it is a great focus now.

TD: To what extent have you used the fitness center yourself?

AM: I have been in the facility but haven’t used the fitness center itself.

I do go down and try to run with the marathon team twice a week ... I’m not running the marathon, though. I enjoy going out for a run, but I probably won’t go beyond seven to nine miles, that’s my limit.

TD: You talked a lot last year about being really open, being on social media, talking to students at sporting events. Has your listening tour at Tufts been completed? Can you afford to spend as much time doing that in the future?

AM: I guess I use social media for different purposes. One is to continue to listen, so being on Facebook or Twitter, I can see what’s happening and what people are saying ... [The second is] to let the Tufts community know what I’m up to and what I think is exciting or important that’s happening.

TD: Do you expect to be on campus

as much as you were last year in the coming years?

AM: So now that [Provost David Harris] is here and pushing forward things like the strategic plan, I think it will allow me to spend more time on the external side of the job in the sense of fundraising, spending time in Washington, and these are things that will be building up.

We have a financial aid initiative going on at the moment ... so I need to get in front of alumni and donors and really tell them what’s important and what we need to raise money for.

Also, in the strategic plan process, we want to engage with alumni, friends, and donors to Tufts. The more I’m out there explaining what’s going on here at the university, the more engaged they’ll be as a group and hopefully give us their perspective as we move forward.

TD: What’s your favorite dining facility?

AM: I like Dewick, but I also enjoy going to Carmichael. I don’t get there as often as I would like. Students should invite me more often. I had a lot of invitations last year, and it’s going down in frequency. Maybe I’m boring now that I’ve been here for a year. I do enjoy going to the dining hall for lunch, and I go to both Dewick and Carmichael. I don’t think either of them is my favorite.

This interview has been abridged and condensed.

edited,

Social media binge-eating

A

fter my semester-long investigation, I admit that my stance on social media is more conflicted than ever.

This position, however, has developed from a simple dichotomy of love and hate to a more nuanced understanding that is also coupled with caution.

At the risk of sounding like a loser, I disliked social media simply because it made me feel more alone. These platforms that were designed with the purpose of connecting people instead heighten feelings of isolation, doing the exact opposite of what they set out to do.

“It’s a lonely business, wandering the labyrinths of our friends’ and pseudo-friends’ projected identities, trying to figure out what part of ourselves we ought to project, who will listen and what they will hear,” Stephen Marche wrote in his spot-on piece published in The Atlantic this past May. What we, as users, publish online on our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr accounts highlight our best selves, which are smart, motivated, funny and social. Of course, we are all of these things and more offline, but we don’t post nearly as much about the days when we feel like crap, when our plans are foiled and when results fall short of what was desired.

This practice of putting forth only the best creates an endless online realm of people’s latest accomplishments, party photos and happy family gatherings. The passive consumption of and broadcasting in this glamorized online space leads to FOMO, the acronym for the fear of missing out phenomenon.

We constantly check our social media accounts to ensure that we didn’t miss out on any parties worth going to from last weekend and that we’ve received invitations to all the right upcoming events. We monitor our peers’ accounts to not just see what they are up to but also to make sure that we are keeping up with them in the broad scheme of life. Did so-and-so get that finance job and did XYZ get into medical school? These are questions that we ask ourselves because of the FOMO that social media creates.

Psychologist and pioneer in online mental health Dr. John M. Grohol once described our social media consumption as eating all the ice cream sundaes in the world without considering any of the serious repercussions. We ingest as much social media as we can simply because we think we can. Our alone time has been replaced with checking status updates of other peoples’ lives instead of the necessary regular dose of self-reflection. Throughout the entire day we obsessively check our texts, emails and social media accounts.

For the past few years, I’ve been on and off Facebook mostly because of FOMO. I grew tired of the way it fostered feelings that just being myself wasn’t enough and that I needed to check Facebook to stay in the loop.

But yet, as I mentioned earlier, I don’t hate social media. In fact, I really appreciate the way it’s helped strengthen some of the relationships that I most treasure. I can admire my friends’ artwork on their online portfolios.

I can see what topics my friends are passionate about by reading the articles they post on their newsfeeds. Personal blogs that my friends maintain show me a side to them that I normally wouldn’t get to see in day-to-day conversations. They can also send me songs that they think I would like or new artists that they have discovered.

Our relationship to social media is admittedly immature. This relatively new technology has opened up so many possibilities but has yet to undergo the lessons that are learned with time. We, as users, have to learn how to strike a healthy balance and so, in my very last column, I urge everyone to consider mindful social media eating.

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

Chang@tufts.edu.

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Arts & Living

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TV Review

‘The League’ triumphs with raunchy, improvised wit by

Alex Hanno

Daily Editorial Board

Let’s face it: There aren’t too many places to turn to nowadays for quality television comedy. With CBS hits like

The League Starring Nick Kroll, Jonathan Lajoie, Paul Scheer Airs Thursdays at 10:30 p.m. on FX “How I Met Your Mother” and “Two and a Half Men” well past their prime, NBC’s “Community” still on hiatus and premium cable comedies requiring, well, premium cable, options are limited.

When you factor in a desire for lessthan-family-friendly humor, you’re bound to come up short.

Unless of course, you turn to FX’s continuing triumph, “The League,” a series revolving around the daily lives of six friends and their fantasy football league.

Pause before you jump to conclusions and assume this show caters to sports fans only. “The League” achieves a type of humor that any comedy fan can enjoy, largely due to its cast of improvisational stand-up comedians.

While there are a slew of jokes NFL lovers will surely appreciate, most of

the show’s humor comes from a wellwritten, albeit crude, script that the stars are willing to alter while filming through well-timed ad-libs.

“The League” might not be appropriate for those viewers rushing home to catch “The Middle” every Wednesday night, but if you’re up for a raunchy laugh, FX is the place for you.

Every character in “The League” has their own brand of effective comedy, but standing out amongst them is the crass lawyer, Rodney Ruxin (Nick Kroll).

Brutally insulting, yet immensely funny, Ruxin supplies some of the most consistent comedy on the show, verbally tearing his best friends apart before game time with unique and guffaw-worthy quips.

Kroll might not be the most intimidating person in real life, but on the show he creates a character that is hard not to hate and all too easy to enjoy watching.

Proving far more lovable are the MacArthur brothers, Kevin (Stephen Rannazzisi) and Taco ( Jon Lajoie).

While relatively unknown, Rannazzisi happens to be one of the show’s best actors, and his character is one of the series’ most comical. Kevin’s marriage with Jenny (Katie Aselton) has provided some of the most compelling and hilarious storylines.

Lajoie’s plotlines, on the other hand, often end up being far more ludicrous, but equally humorous as he faithfully

Courtesy Byron Cohen / FX Network

Nick Kroll supplies some of the most consistent comedy of the show with his brutally insulting character Ruxin. maintains his classic stoner character throughout. He also supplies viewers with some of his real life musical talent through original, raunchy songs that pop up here and there over the course of the show. see LEAGUE, page 6

Music review

Lukas / Wikimedia

Alicia Keys performs well, but her new record fails to excite.

Alicia Keys underwhelms with new album

by Joe Stile

Daily Editorial Board

In the three years since her last album, Alicia Keys has married producer Swizz Beatz and

Girl On Fire Alicia Keys

RCA had her first child. Those kinds of major life events usually inspire artists to create personal and

profound works. Unfortunately, Keys’ new album, “Girl on Fire,” is surprisingly insipid and mundane despite Keys’ phenomenal vocal abilities. The entire album seems resigned to flood bland adult-contemporary stations without much desire to excite or rouse anything in listeners.

It’s a shame that Keys, once known for her fierce, soulful voice, could make a project this dull. On Keys’ debut record, “Songs in A Minor” (2001), using just her voice and a simple piano she was able to set tracks ablaze with her fury

and deep-seated emotions.

With “Girl on Fire,” Keys has lost that flame.

The album’s entire production, while never flat out bad, is completely forgettable.

The tunes can be enjoyable at times, but they never go beyond the types of songs they are trying to be. The album has the “anthem” and the “emotional ballad,” but “Girl on Fire” plays it so by the books that it all sounds hollow.

Keys still has an incredible vocal range and should still be recognized as one of the best

voices of her generation, which makes it all the more disheartening that she would waste her considerable talents on these songs. While the album plays, listeners are likely to wonder where the woman who just three years ago could make skyscrapers shake on “Empire State of Mind” (2009) has gone.

That kind of heart is noticeably absent on this release.

The record’s lyrics don’t do much to save these weak productions either. The lines play see GIRL, page 6

Joe Stile | BASSic

You can’t predict the weather

T

.I. has released his new single, “Sorry,” featuring the renowned Andre 3000. As with any track that Dre puts his verse on, he is astonishing and the main reason to listen to the recording at all.

The song’s hook repeatedly asks, “What should I be sorry for?/ Who should I be sorry to?” and sets up the theme for the verses: these hip-hop veterans are going to look back on their lives and apologize to the ones they’ve truly wronged.

For most of his three-minute verse, the ATLien is in rapid-fire mode. It’s as if he doesn’t think he’ll have time to make amends to all the people he wants to address.

Three Stacks begins his rhymes by talking about himself, and makes some surprisingly honest observations in the process. Andre goes off about how life is more exciting when you’re striving for something rather than when you’re already a legend. He talks about how jaded someone can become once they have nothing left to go after, nothing left to prove. While the average listener might not relate to this idea of “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems,” the concept itself still is moving.

Dre uses a nice metaphor when he says how his Porche has led him “off course.” The extravagant wealth that he has worked so hard for and now obtained is nice, but now that he’s got it, what’s left to keep him going so hard? Where’s the motivation when you have the world? It’s this kind of honest reflection that’s missing from a lot of the more superficial rap out there.

Next, he switches to what will likely be the lines that get the most attention: he apologizes to his former Outkast partner Big Boi. Outkast was one of the biggest names in music, racking up numerous awards and selling millions of records, when Andre decided he needed a break from rap. In his apology, Dre admits that it was his own fault for the break-up, but also makes it clear that the pronouncement didn’t come from a place of malice, but rather from Three Stacks’ own disillusionment with fame. In only a few lines, Andre opens up while always making his intentions and perspective apparent. It’s stupefying that he can do all of that in so few words.

Andre is one of the densest lyricists working today — in the following lyric he connects both the ideas mentioned previously in the track when he addresses Big Boi with, “Why did we try so hard to be stars/ just to dodge comments?”, which references both the day-to-day grind of Outkast’s beginnings and the flurry of questions he and Big Boi have received about a possible reunion. It’s this kind of self-awareness that makes Dre one of the wisest rappers in the industry.

The final wrong he brings up is leaving the mother of his child to keep pursuing rap back before he was famous. It’s an excellently detailed account of complex emotions and regret.

As if all this wasn’t enough, Andre then goes meta and talks about how after this verse is released, “All some p---y n---a on the Internet can say is that verse ain’t good/ it’s boring.”

He’s just poured out his heart about his biggest regrets and some annoying tweeter will likely find it “boring.” It causes Andre’s remarks about making the wrong choice when he picked his career over staying with his family make perfect sense.

Over the past decade, Andre 3000 has only released a handful of verses and has yet to make a solo album. While I would gratefully accept a more prolific Three Stacks, as long as the little bit of material he does make is of this exceptionally high caliber I have nothing to complain about.

Joe Stile is a senior majoring in political science. He can be reached at Joseph.Stile@ tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

6

Arts & Living

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

PEACE AND LIGHT

CHRISTMAS CONCERT GODDARD CHAPEL

December 5, 2012 4:30 – 5:30 PM Featuring a Selection of Christmas Songs with Organ, Piano, and Tufts University Chorale

Janet E. Hunt, Director of Music Followed by tree-lighting, carol singing and refreshments in the Chapel Goddard Chapel, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, (617) 627-3427 Website: www.tufts.edu/chaplaincy: Facebook – Tufts University Chaplaincy Wheelchair Accessibility via Tower Door

Keys provides little to get excited about on latest release GIRL

continued from page 5

Courtesy Frank Ockenfels / FX Network

The cast of the “The League” elevates the show through improvisation.

‘League’ shines thanks to strong cast LEAGUE

continued from page 5

Where the show sometimes falters is with its “straight man” character, Pete Eckhart (Duplass).

If you happen to be a fan of most of Duplass’ indie work as a director, writer or actor, you might enjoy his performance here, for he stays relatively static during the series. But, if Duplass’ highly specific niche doesn’t interest you, then Pete’s antics on “The League” are likely to be a miss as well.

Both NFL fans and comedy fans are rewarded when it comes to the array of guest stars “The League” manages to drum up.

Ray Liotta, Jeff Goldblum and Sarah Silverman amongst many, many others have graced the show in the past,

and this season has sported the likes of Timothy Olyphant and Ken Marino.

Notable figures of football fame turn up just as often.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and former Bears quarterback Jim McMahon appeared earlier this year.

You can never quite be sure who will end up on an episode of “The League.”

But, as with most pleasant surprises, the stars are always welcome additions.

Whether or not you enjoy football and whether or not you enjoy stand-up comedy, the “The League” is more than likely to entertain you.

Finding humor where other shows never have, it won’t just make you chuckle or grin, it will make you outright laugh. That’s hard to find these days, so enjoy it while you can.

in the shallow end of the pool, never diving into real emotion. “Girl on Fire” seems content with cliches and trite statements rather than anything that might elicit real feeling from the tracks. Nothing here has the honesty or openness of Keys’ bestpenned songs like “Fallin’” (2001) or “You Don’t Know My Name” (2003).

The song “When It’s All Over” is a good stand in for the many flaws of the record.

The track spits out some generic lines about Keys following her heart and being glad she had found love. While the song has a slight jazzy vibe, nothing about it seems to stick. The melody just moves in and out of the listener’s ears without making an impact. It’s a song that’s meant for a long elevator ride at work, a song that drowns itself out.

At the end of the song, Keys starts a cute conversation with her son, Egypt.

While that would seem personal and a nice little touch for the record, something about Keys’ voice in the conversation projects and enunciates too much.

For a second, it feels like she’s just say-

ing everything because she was told to do so in a studio booth rather than projecting the image of an actual conversation with her son. It comes off as slightly manipulative and is just another way that the whole album feels forced and superficial.

The title track and first single, “Girl on Fire,” doesn’t fare much better. The song tries so hard for stomping, girl-power anthem status that it comes off as standard. The lyrics never say anything more than that this girl is on fire, and it’s difficult to imagine any female hearing this actually being empowered. Keys should take notes from Beyoncé next time she wants to make a stadium-song like this because “Girl on Fire” lacks any sort of spirit behind it. Even a Nicki Minaj verse can’t save this song from its own banality.

In the past, Alicia Keys has made some truly standout albums. On “Girl on Fire,” she blends into the background. With her golden voice, it shouldn’t be hard for Keys to come back in a few years with another truly great record again, especially if she uses “Girl on Fire” as a reference for exactly what not to do.

Walmart / Wikimedia

Keys made her best music when it was just her and a piano.

The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Doonesbury

by

Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur

by

7

Comics Crossword

Wiley

Tuesday’s Solution

Married to the Sea

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Drinking one too many coffees

Late Night at the Daily Monday’s Solution

Rebecca: “Like, what do you do with your self-esteem after you give someone head in exchange for cookies?”

Please recycle this Daily.

The Tufts Daily

8

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

Editorial Ben Kochman Falcon Reese Managing Editors Jenna Buckle Executive News Editor Shana Friedman News Editors Lizz Grainger Stephanie Haven Amelie Hecht Daphne Kolios Patrick McGrath Laina Piera Martha Shanahan Melissa Wang Jenny White Menghan Liu Assistant News Editors Melissa Mandelbaum Audrey Michael James Pouliot Josh Weiner Hannah Fingerhut Executive Features Editor Jon Cheng Features Editors Amelia Quinn Derek Schlom Lily Sieradzki Emily Bartlett Assistant Features Editors Alexandria Chu Jacob Passy Melissa MacEwen Executive Arts Editor Kate Griffiths Arts Editors Alex Hanno Joe Stile Matthew Welch Alex Kaufman Assistant Arts Editors Dan O’Leary Caroline Welch Jonathan Green Bhushan Deshpande David Kellogg Seth Teleky Yiota Kastritis Peter Sheffer Denise Amisial Jehan Madhani Louie Zong Keran Chen Nicholas Golden Scott Geldzahler NewtonPortorreal

Editorial | Letters

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

editorial

Need-blind admissions should be long-term goal

In an interview conducted in October and published in today’s Daily, University President Anthony Monaco expressed his wariness of trying to reinstate a need-blind admissions policy without the necessary funds in the short term. “I’m not sure I would set it as a goal to be need-blind because it’s hard, one: to attain, and two: to maintain,” Monaco said.

When Tufts briefly adopted needblind admissions in 2007 and 2008, it was due to an anonymous monetary gift that allowed the university to temporarily implement the policy until the gift was exhausted.

Monaco instead endorses the idea of using a two-year, $25-million initiative to continue the expansion of the school’s regular financial aid by boosting the endowment. He understands that it is important to increase Tufts’ diversity of viewpoints and make admissions as merit-based as possible.

At the same time, Monaco recognizes

the massive financial cost that going need-blind would entail. The Daily believes that, despite these challenges, a need-blind admission policy should still be a long-term goal.

There are a number of reasons why a need-blind policy would be beneficial to Tufts. It speaks to our message as a liberal arts university interested in expanding the diversity of worldviews of our students. It would expand the reach of Tufts’ resources to more applicants from lower-income backgrounds.

Finally, there is the question of prestige. Tufts is a strong academic institution with deep roots in research, and its reputation depends on these qualities. At the same time, many similar institutions, such as Amherst College, Duke University, Brandeis University, Harvard College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all have needblind admission policies. We should aspire to continue to improve our school and meet the standards that

similar academic institutions can.

President Monaco is correct to acknowledge the obstacles standing between our school and its reinstatement of a need-blind policy. Tufts’ endowment in 2011 stood at just under $1.5 billion dollars, according to a survey from the National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund Institute. According to the same survey, schools like Harvard and Duke, both need-blind, have endowments of over $30 billion and over $5 billion, respectively.

Currently, Tufts does not and is unlikely to have comparable funds or enough money in the immediate future to support a need-blind admissions policy. President Monaco’s decision to focus on boosting our endowment at this time is, then, a pragmatic choice. But just because a need-blind admission policy is far out of reach right now shouldn’t exclude it as a

do not feel that it was a good reflection of our values, as individuals or as a group.

The promotion of rape culture and sexual assault is intolerable. Joking about sexual assault is never acceptable, and we did not intend to do so with our songs. Reflective discussion and action has already begun within our group. We encourage other members of the community to let us know if they would like to be a part of this process.

While this was not a Tufts Wilderness Orientation-sanctioned event, we are, as

staff, always looking for ways to create an environment where people feel safe in their bodies, in their communities and as individuals. We hope to work with all students in the future to create such a safe space.

Once again, our apologies for what has happened and the harm it has caused.

Louie Zong

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Letter to the Editor Dear Editor,

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

To everyone present in DewickMacPhie Dining Hall on the night of Nov. 16: first and foremost, we apologize.

Our behavior was rude, disruptive and unacceptable. We sincerely regret that our actions and songs caused distress or annoyance, neither of which was intended.

In addition, we would like to formally apologize to the staff members of Dewick who were forced to deal with an uncomfortable situation for both diners and workers. We

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.

Sincerely, Nate Matthews, Pooja Beri and the rest of the group

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must be submitted by 2 p.m. and should be handed into the Daily office or sent to letters@tuftsdaily.com.

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The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, December 4, 2012 Op-Ed

A humble suggestion by

Carolyn Saund

It is a melancholy object to those who walk across this great campus when they are assailed by the insensitive and hurtful utterances of their peers, all of whom are numb to the power of a phrase. Students like me, instead of feeling protected and welcome at Tufts, are forced to employ all too much energy in actively ignoring such incidences or educating violators in the error of their ignorance of polite, deep-rooted social behaviors.

This naturally evokes verbal defensiveness on the part of the perpetrator and accomplishes little when one accounts for the vast number of miscreants compared to upright, socially correct citizens such as myself.

A prime example of an incident such as this comes directly from my experiences on this campus. The other day on the Joey, I overheard someone say, to who I can safely presume was his or her close friend, “You don’t like shopping? What are you, straight?” As a heterosexual woman who enjoys shopping very much, this deeply hurt me.

The accusatory tone used by the perpetrator clearly indicated their disdain for all straight individuals, which I can only assume cut to the hearts of many fellow heterosexuals within earshot at the time. This kind of blatant rejection of a sexuality I didn’t choose cannot be tolerated — especially here at Tufts.

My fellow students, communities with thoughts as intolerant and aggressive as the Tufts campus have perpetrated the worst atrocities humanity ever saw. More than just a slippery slope, we are launching headfirst down a genocidal slip-and-slide. The Tufts administration is itself guilty of these charges. Our first-year tuition, if not tuition from all four years, supports the dining centers on campus, all of which serve meat; my hardearned money is going to support the murder culture of the meat industry.

Most students choose to overlook this

seemingly minor infraction on our belief systems against murder, but if we do not stand up against oppression — if we choose to continue to passively accept the blatant disrespect of those around us — who knows what other personal convictions our peers may be tempted to violate. Today, a hamburger. Tomorrow, the cannibalism of Irish infants.

I propose, as a way to avoid the discussion of sensitive topics that may endorse such horrific violations against any student in our commonality, that each student be required to complete a one-year, two-credit course on public decorum. Surely, if Tufts required such a course, members of the community would be better educated on how to conduct themselves in a reasonable fashion so as never to offend anybody in their life, and potential wrongdoers may be elevated to a higher plane of social acceptability prior to committing egregious violations of political correctness.

I do therefore humbly offer up to public consideration a solution to the enormous problem of incessant, malicious insults against all members of the community. Tufts shall install a complete list of conversation topics that are deemed appropriate for public discussion, which would, of course, exclude race, gender, religion and sexuality. Such a document may further dictate the rules of civil discourse, consequently shunning the usage of opprobrious debate. An example of such a standard may be that students be required to engage only in polite body language, including maintaining direct eye contact at all times, for no one would want wandering eyes for fear of being judged by peers. It would perhaps be expected that all individuals maintain feet facing no more than 12 degrees — as a summation from both feet — away from their partner, thereby solidifying apparent interest in the conversation, so as no person may be offended by a perceived

lack of attention. Similarly, it may be compulsory that participants in conversation speak exactly 109 words per minute, to allow ample time for auditory processing while maintaining a considerate pace, and indicating the value of the time of the conversational partner. Such staunch politeness will undoubtedly ensure that no comrade will encounter a state of exasperation, and no would-be offender be unintentionally provoked. Properly enforced, a policy such as this could only lead to an agreeable and nescient populace.

Naturally, a petition process may be instated by which a panel of student and administrative representatives would review requested topics for specific places and times. After all, we are a country founded on free speech, and for anyone to feel lacking in the freedom to express themselves publicly is not what I request.

I merely wish to no longer be subject to offense against my person on this campus. I believe freedom of speech does not include freedom to offend.

Benjamin Franklin — perhaps the most esteemed and influential proponent of free speech in American history — said himself, “If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little [offense taken by anyone and privileged college students would all be much happier and not ignorant of the real world at all].” The kind of language I experience here should not be what I am subjected to when I walk down the streets of an outside city; this place should be a safe haven, where anything that hurts me is disallowed. After all, aren’t I entitled to the complete respect and agreement of my peers?

Carolyn Saund is a sophomore majoring in computer science and cognitive and brain sciences. She can be reached at Carolyn.Saund@tufts.edu.

Off the Hill | Harvard University

Peace in Palestine no longer possible

by

Eric T. Justin

Harvard Crimson

When pressed to make predictions, pundits sometimes retort that they are “not in the prediction-making business.” They say this, of course, because they don’t want to leave their resultsdisoriented business. The trick is to make a prediction so far in the future that no one will check if you were right anyway. With that in mind, I predict that there will not be an independent Palestinian state by 2040.

Three major events happened over the last month in Palestine: Gaza and Israel waged an eight-day battle, Palestine became a non-member observer state at the United Nations, and Israel simultaneously cut its aid to the Palestinian Authority and expanded the construction of settlements in East Jerusalem. Collectively, these actions symbolize another lost generation on the never-ending path to peace and Palestinian statehood.

Let’s look at each event individually.

There are a couple of very bad ways to understand the conflict in Gaza.

Unfortunately, these are also the most popular ways. The first one is to count dead bodies and then use them to make an argument about “ethics.” If you are seeking the laziest moral standard possible, just remember, whichever side had the lowest number of people die is automatically the bad guy!

Another fallacious way to understand the conflict is to ask who started it. Israel technically broke a peace agreement when it killed Al-Jabari, Hamas’s military commander. But Hamas is officially committed to Israel’s destruction, so all peace deals are temporary. Al-Jabari

himself led an operation that smuggled hundreds of rockets from Iran into Gaza through Sudan and Egypt.

The latest battle between Gaza and Israel really revolves around the development of military technology over the last 10 years, not to mention Iran’s pivotal role in that development. Whereas Gaza’s rockets in the 2008 engagement with Israel were highly inaccurate and faulty, often with a range under 10 miles, the new Fajr-5 rockets weigh more than 2,000 pounds and are capable of reaching Tel Aviv. Although Israel and Gaza arrived at some sort of peace agreement, Hamas’ new access to high-level Iranian military technology raises the stakes both within Palestine and across the region.

Unlike the conflict in Gaza, the “achievement” of non-member observer state status by Palestine’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, could probably be described as a charade. Crowds in the West Bank greeted Abbas like a conquering hero, which a cynical observer could describe as the only concrete goal of the vote at the United Nations.

Abbas claimed that his effort to receive non-member observer state status for Palestine was motivated by the stalled status of peace negotiations with Israel and the continued developments of settlements. That’s half nonsense. The Palestinian Authority’s longtime president desperately sought public support as Gaza slipped further from his sphere of influence and he appeared helpless in the face of Israeli settlement construction. Regardless of whether one wants to attribute Abbas’s move to Israeli intransigence or his own motivation to stay in power, the move unequivocally sets back the peace process.

9

Op-Ed

Regardless, Abbas will need all the public support he can garner in the West Bank, too, if the International Monetary Fund’s economic predictions are correct. The IMF’s mission chief for the West Bank, Oussama Kanaan, predicted in September that the Palestinian economy would soon experience an economic slump and a spike in unemployment.

He blamed Israel’s limits on Palestinian trade and a severe drawback in donor money from the Arab world.

This brings us to the latest event. In the aftermath of the vote at the United Nations, Israel quickly responded. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized the planning and zoning for construction in the area of West Bank town, Ma’ale Adumim. Building in that area would “make it nearly impossible to create a contiguous Palestinian state.”

On Sunday, Israel chose to withhold its transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority, accusing them of violating peace deals by upgrading its status at the United Nations. This will only exacerbate the social unrest engendered by the West Bank’s economic slump.

In the coming decades, observers will ask themselves how the region slid from the promise of the Oslo Accords to these lows. They may discover that this last month’s events were the watershed moment when both sides committed their next generation of youth to the never-ending conflict.

As someone with close Israeli and Palestinian friends, I sincerely hope that the passing of time will prove me wrong. History may prove once again that pundits should avoid the prediction-making business.

Craig Frucht | Road to November

On the cliff’s edge

B

y the time we return to school in January, all of our families may be juggling thousands of dollars in tax increases alongside Tufts’ already mountain-like tuition payments.

The fiscal cliff negotiations are going even worse than most analysts predicted they would. The talks are stalemated, and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R.-Ohio) is frantically trying to push a narrative that President Barack Obama’s intransigence is to blame for the stalemate. “The President’s idea of negotiation is: Roll over and do what I ask,” Boehner grumbled.

But while the White House has made it clear that it won’t accept any deal that does not include some increase in top marginal income tax rates, the amount by which they increase, Obama has said, is negotiable. Boehner has said Republicans will not consider a compromise that includes any increase in tax rates. So exactly which party is being intransigent?

Boehner’s case is not helped by the fact that public opinion polls show that most Americans want those tax rates to increase, or by his party’s failure to win the presidency or increase representation in either chamber of Congress.

It’s true that President Obama’s negotiating position is one that he knows Republicans will never accept: He’s asking for $1.6 trillion in new tax revenues, $200 billion in additional unemployment benefits and other stimulus and for the top marginal rates to revert back to 39.6 percent.

But that’s a bargaining position, not an ultimatum. It’s no less extreme than the one Republicans have taken to begin negotiations. The difference is that, unlike Boehner, Obama has indicated a willingness to sacrifice some aspects of his platform.

So it’s hard to take seriously the recent histrionic displays of shock coming from Boehner, who took to Fox News last week to declare himself “flabbergasted” at Obama’s temerity. That’s really just political theater meant to distract constituents from the fact that dragging the country to the brink of economic ruin has become the House of Representative’s primary modus operandi under his leadership.

Last summer, the world was treated to the humiliating spectacle of the U.S. debt ceiling negotiations, in which Congressional Republicans arbitrarily made permitting the government to borrow enough money to pay off debts it already incurred contingent upon demands for future spending cuts.

The crisis that followed, which resulted in the first-ever credit-rating downgrade in U.S. history, was completely manufactured by Congress. The impact of the deficit reduction it achieved is so meager it hardly bears mentioning. And it shouldn’t take an economic expert to figure out why that is. Tax cuts and deficit reduction simply aren’t compatible policy objectives. Deficit reduction is for the long-term health of the nation; it will do nothing to help the recovery in the short-term.

So here we are again. Boehner refuses to allow a House vote on extending the Bush tax cuts for the middle class — which both parties agree is critical to averting a recession — because it would jeopardize what feeble leverage his party has to implement two cornerstones of its agenda that happen to be in fundamental conflict with one another.

But congressional Republicans know they will take the brunt of the blame if everyone’s tax rates go up. This week, there have been whispers in Republican circles about extending middle class tax cuts before New Year’s, and then saving the issues of top marginal tax rates and entitlement reform for the next year’s vote on increasing the debt ceiling.

In other words, we avert disaster until the next opportunity arrives for Boehner’s Republicans to manufacture a crisis.

Because that’s the only way Congress gets anything done these days.

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

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

The Tufts Daily

10 Wanted

Services

Sports

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Housing

Housing

4 bedroom apartment available June 2013. Parking, yard, laundry & huge basement. $3000.00/month.

Located on Chetwynd Street - 2 minute walk to campus. Call 617666-1318 or email natalie@gpmanagement.com

4 bedroom apartment on Ossipee Rd available June 1, excellent condition. Call Maria for more information at 781-942-7625.

continued from back

reaching fourth on the Tufts indoor record list.

Meanwhile, freshman Leah Potter came in first in the high jump with a jump of 5-feet, 2.25-inches, and first-year Paige Roberts cleared the same height, but in more attempts, to tie for second.

“I think that it’s a really good way to start the season, and it definitely makes me a lot more confident about my future performances,” Potter said.

Freshman Alexis Harrison placed second and broke the indoor school record in the 60-meter dash, topping Logan Crane’s (LA ’10) five-year-old record with a time of 7.97 seconds.

“She ran faster than Logan Crane, who was probably one of the best sprinters we’ve ever had at Tufts,” Morwick said. “It was pretty cool for her to break Logan’s record so early on.”

Meanwhile, the Tufts throwers continued to surpass all their competitors. In the weight throw, seniors Kelly Allen and Ronke Oyekunle, sophomore Grace Demyan and junior Robin Armstrong swept places one through four, with the latter three achieving personal indoor bests.

Allen also took first in the shot put with a toss of 41-feet, 7.25-inches, and Oyekunle threw 41-feet, 6-inches for second. Oyekunle’s

personal record shot put heave was also good enough for fourth on the indoor honor roll. Her weight throw claimed third on the list.

The upperclassmen also succeeded on the track. House won the 1,000-meter race with a time of 3:11.11, a personal best and her first individual victory as a college student.

“I ran at this meet last year, and I ran a 3:22, so it was a really great improvement for me,” she said.

“I’ve been working really hard, especially in cross country, to build up my mileage, and I think it’s been paying off.”

Senior Toby Crispin outpaced the field in the mile by a good ten seconds, reaching a time of 5:21.05. The 4x400-meter relay team, made up of junior Colleen Flanagan, freshman Marilyn Allen and seniors Alyssa Corrigan and Samantha Bissonnette, also won with a time of 4:08.71.

Despite the impressive performances of much of the team, Morwick said that other Jumbos could have fared better and will improve by continuing to train physically and mentally.

“In some of the events, people were a little tentative for the longer sprints and they didn’t push as hard as they could have,” she said.

“There is a fatigue factor because we’ve been working really hard, and we haven’t backed off at all. I think in general, the upperclass-

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Throwers sweep as Jumbos dominate meet WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD

-

Jumbos looking to move on after rough weekend matchups

men especially need to trust themselves a little more.”

Even the victorious athletes are not feeling complacent about their wins. Potter still plans to train and lift weights over winter break to beat her personal high school record, a 5-feet, 4-inches jump that was nearly two inches higher than her result on Saturday.

“I need to start working on being more powerful in my jumps,” she said. “I have good technique over the bar, but my coach is trying to get the last three steps of my runup faster.”

The Jumbos originally planned to attend the Jay Carisella Invitational hosted by Northeastern University, but after the location and competing teams were changed, the team decided to stick to racing at the UMass-Boston event. The Jay Carisella Invitational would have featured stronger Div. I opponents compared to the mix of Div. I, Div. II and Div. III teams in years past.

“The meet changed, but we thought it was a lot more of an appropriate meet for our first one,” Morwick said. “It’s nice when athletes can walk away with success in their first college meet to keep them inspired and not over-intimidated.”

The Jumbos will host their next competition, the Tufts Invitational, on Jan. 12 at the Gantcher Center.

HOCKEY

continued from back

“I think when we took an early lead we may have gotten a little too comfortable,” Edwards said. “We got lackadaisical in our own defensive zone at times, and they capitalized.

We believed we had a chance to win up until the end, but we just couldn’t make it happen.”

Tufts responded with a quick goal from forward Luke Griffin, as the freshman also finished his first-ever collegiate goal, but the Jumbos were unable to pull any closer in regulation.

“I don’t know that we really lost momentum, because we were spending a lot of time in their zone throughout the game and that didn’t really change at any point,” Phillips said. “They had some bounces go their way early in the third period to go up and we just weren’t able to rebound from that.

The losses also belied the fact that for the past few weeks, the team has been plagued by injuries, including several concussions, a broken hand and a torn MCL. The spell of bad luck has sidelined, among others, sophomore forwards Tyler Voigt, Derrek Schartz and Andrew White.

“Injuries are part of the game,” Phillips said. “It’s adversity we’re

trying to overcome, but at the same time we’re not looking at them as an excuse. It really just comes down to us tightening up a few things and making sure we’re prepared every game regardless of who’s in and out of the lineup.”

This weekend, the Jumbos will host Bowdoin and Colby in their second home doubleheader of the season. Friday night’s game will be a tall order for Tufts, as Bowdoin is 3-0-1 in the conference and the current NESCAC leader.

The matchup with Colby on Saturday, however, presents an opportunity for the Jumbos to improve their standing, as the Mules are currently 0-4-0 and sit at the bottom of the conference.

“We need to clean up some of the mistakes we made this past weekend to prepare for Friday against Bowdoin. We’re aware that they’re a good team this year, but we’re also playing them at home where we’re undefeated, and that should give us an edge and let us play with confidence,” Phillips said. “Colby on Saturday is an important game because it’s going to set the tone going in to our three week break, and it’ll be a good opportunity for us to come away with two big points against another NESCAC team.”

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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

The Tufts Daily

11

Sports

Women’s Squash

Aaron Leibowitz | The Fan

What’s in a name

W

Alex Dennett / Tufts Daily Archives

The women’s squash team will be looking to regroup at a winter break training session after opening the season 2-5.

Tufts goes 1-3 on weekend, concludes fall semester schedule

by Jorge

Monroy-Palacio

Daily Staff Writer

The No. 24 women’s squash team ended up going 1-3 in a packed weekend, and after opening with a loss to No. 13 Bates the Jumbos went 1-2 on Saturday, taking down No. 34 Smith College and losing to No. 18 Wesleyan and No. 17 Mt. Holyoke.

Going into the weekend, the team was at 1-1 with a close loss to No. 22 Boston College and a win over No. 24 Wellesley.

However, facing a team like the Bobcats certainly represented a step up in quality, and while some matches stayed close, the Jumbos were defeated handily, 8-1.

The one win came from the No. 8 match, when sophomore Charlotte Griffith defeated Bates sophomore Emma Korein. Griffith took the first two games in the match 11-5 and 11-7 respectively before losing the third 11-6, but she eventually pulled out the fourth game 11-6.

Sally Pratt, a freshman who only took up the sport this year, also won in No. 10 match.

While only the first nine matches count, Pratt won 11-6, 5-11, 9-11, 11-9, 15-13.

But after the shellacking at the hands of the Bobcats on Friday, the Jumbos were determined to make a more positive impression at the Wesleyan Round-Robin Tournament on Saturday.

“We went into our long day of squash with a positive, focused mindset looking to play our own games ... and improve on any weaknesses we felt from Friday,” Chaudhry said. “[That] focus definitely showed in each of our matches.”

Against Wesleyan in the day’s first match, senior Risa Meyers was able to win a game and senior co-captain Jessica Rubine clinched the team’s only match win against Wesleyan. Although the Jumbos lost overall 8-1, that victory propelled the team in their later matches on the day.

“As we all watched Jess’ win, we gained the inspiration and positive attitude we needed as we proceeded to play against Smith and were able to win comfortably,” Chaudhry said.

The final score in the Smith match up was 8-1, giving Tufts its first win since Nov. 28.

Then, with the Jumbos at 1-1 on the day heading into their final match against Mt. Holyoke, an incredibly close contest ensued.

“We [were] working to maintain our focus as we looked to leave our efforts on the court in our last match of the fall semester. The match improved to be quite close, as we lost only at 4-5,” Chaudhry said. “This was my third time playing Mt. Holyoke in my time at Tufts.

It was so impressive to see us win mul-

tiple matches against the team that has served as one of our toughest opponents in past years.”

In the match, the lower-seeded competitors stepped up and made the greatest contribution, with the No. 6 through No. 9 players winning all four of their contests.

“I was incredibly proud of my teammates as the 6-9 positions on the ladder gave us our match wins,” Chaudhry said. “[Though] Risa Meyers ... turned her ankle in her first game, [she] proceeded to play and win her match in five games.”

That final match of the semester brought the Jumbos to 2-5 overall.

They are looking forward to a winter break training schedule to continue to improve.

“We will be going to David Palmer’s Squash Academy in Orlando in January.

This is a great opportunity that other colleges are not going to have,” Rubine said.

“We will be training with one of the best squash players in the world and we are all so excited.”

After winter break, Tufts returns to match play on Jan. 19 against Conn.

College.

“Our first match when we get back against Conn. College is really important.

We are all going to come back from break ready to win,” Rubine said.

Altered practices provide team with boost heading into break MEN’S SQUASH

continued from back

The first match of the weekend came on Friday against Bates, in which Tufts was not able to win an individual match. Advani lost his individual match in five close games at the No. 2 position while freshman Brandon Weiss was also able to keep the score close against his Bates opponent in the No. 6 spot, but in the end, the scoreboard read 9-0 in a dominant Bates victory.

“Considering my five years of squash experience, I feel like I played pretty well,” Weiss said. “It’s exciting to compete against a lot of top teams from the area, especially a NESCAC powerhouse like Bates.”

After the tough match against Bates on Friday, Tufts lost its next two matches against Harvard and Navy by scores of 9-0 and 8-1, respectively, on Saturday afternoon.

Then, after a close-fought victory against Colgate, the Jumbos were blown out again against Wesleyan 8-1 to conclude the first semester schedule.

In that match against the Cardinals, Advani was the only one to secure an

individual victory, winning easily in three games at the No. 2 spot, 11-3, 11-8, 11-6.

Other notable individual matches included a heated, four-game loss by sophomore co-captain Zachary Schweitzer at No. 1 as well as an extremely tight four-game loss by junior co-captain Jeremy Ho at No. 3, whose final score read 4-11, 11-8, 10-12, 15-17.

But the Jumbos will draw hope from their lone victory on the weekend, a decisive 8-1 victory over Colgate that kept them just above .500.

“After a few tough outings, I’m glad we were able to secure [that] win against Colgate,” sophomore Elliot Kardon said. “It’s definitely a moralebooster.”

The Tufts players also believe McManus and assistant coaches Eric Lamsa and Edwin Lennox’s well-run practices have relieved pressure during matches.

“The practices have definitely been a lot of fun, while intense, too,” Advani said. “I like the coaches a lot, and over the next few months, I think everyone will continue to bond as a team and

improve their games dramatically.”

Recently, the men’s team attended a Pro Squash Tour match and watched some of the world’s top players, including Australia’s David Palmer, compete on squash’s highest stage.

“It was definitely a great experience,” Weiss said. “I can’t wait for more outings in the coming months.”

Once matches resume in January, the Jumbos will look forward to more dual matches as well as a number of tournaments McManus has scheduled for the squad, which will feature matches against a number of strong NESCAC teams.

“I’m really looking forward to our match against the legendary Trinity squash program,” Kardon said.

“Although we don’t stand much of a chance, it’s a huge honor to be able to play a team of that caliber. I’m also looking forward to many of our NESCAC matches because of the competitive atmosphere.”

With a long break coming up, the Jumbos will look to rest up and continue to improve before they dive deeper into NESCAC play on Jan. 19 against Conn. College.

hat would you do if you grew up rooting for a team called the Redskins? That’s the question I found myself pondering this past weekend as I walked around Washington, D.C. and saw men, women, seniors and newborns alike donning their favorite football team’s logo: a stereotypical image of a Native American with, quite literally, red skin and a feather in his hair.

As fans, to what exactly are we loyal?

Is it the players? The average NFL career lasts just 3.5 seasons. With free agency, rosters change constantly.

Is it the city? I know a New Yorker who roots for the Miami Heat, a San Franciscan who roots for the Green Bay Packers and a New Jerseyan who roots for Everton Football Club.

Ultimately, what fans of a given team share is a name and a logo. What Redskins fans share is a derogatory racial term and a stereotypical image of a Native American with red skin and a feather in his hair.

Of course, it’s easy enough for fans to separate the images they rally around from their racial implications, whether they support the Washington Redskins or the Kansas City Chiefs, the Atlanta Braves or the Cleveland Indians, the Florida State Seminoles or the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux. “It’s about tradition,” they’ll say. “It’s not meant to offend Native Americans.” “It’s just sports, just a silly mascot. Lighten up.”

Devoting yourself to a sports team is silly. Making mascots of Native Americans — people who were nearly exterminated so the white man could control this land — is sickening.

Mascots are meant to be intimidating and animalistic. They are Lions, Tigers, Bears, and sometimes Jumbos. They are usually not human.

What Native Americans have in common with the animals that represent most teams is that they are not treated as humans. And, because of other humans, they’re nearly extinct.

Over time, there has been some pushback against indigenous mascots, but changes have mostly been made at the collegiate level, where schools want to avoid sanctions from the NCAA and protests from activist students. The Stanford Indians became the Stanford Cardinal. The St. John’s Redmen became the Red Storm. The Dartmouth Indians became the Big Green.

But in professional sports, money and power have allowed the Redskins and many others to stay the way they are. Fans continue to attend games and buy jerseys, and teams continue to stave off complaints from indigenous groups, claiming there is no harm intended.

Native Americans have tried to do the work themselves. In 2005, after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office decided to cancel the registration of the Redskins, the case Pro-Football, Inc. v. Harjo reached the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C. But it was sent back to trial court because of a procedural issue, allowing the Redskins to keep their name. In 2009, the Supreme Court refused to reconsider the case, saying the Native Americans had waited too long and thus forfeited their right to sue.

Until the fans themselves start caring who is harmed by their fandom and speak out, both with their voices and their pocketbooks, nothing is going to change.

The Redskins insist their name is meant to honor Native American tradition — apparently, they see the use of a disparaging term and a degrading image as a form of respect. But does the intent really matter? If I hug you to show affection and squeeze so hard that you can’t breathe, should I keep on squeezing?

As fans, we’re privileged to be able to watch our teams on TV and in person, and to wear our RG3 jerseys with pride. But with that privilege comes a responsibility to think about what we’re cheering for.

While we’re having fun, who’s being silenced? Who are we hurting?

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

Sports

12

INSIDE Women’s Squash 11

tuftsdaily.com

Hockey

Two losses to NESCAC rivals highlight tough weekend for Jumbos Kate Klots

Daily Editorial Board

On Saturday, the hockey team dropped its second straight conference game, ICE HOCKEY (3-3-1, 1-2-1 NESCAC) at Middlebury, Vt., Saturday

Tufts 0 1 1 — 2 Middlebury 3 4 2 — 9 at Williamstown, Mass., Friday Tufts Williams

1 1 1 — 3 1 2 2 — 5

falling 9-2 to Middlebury in a game where the Jumbos were forced to substitute three different keepers between the pipes. Panthers junior forward Louis Belisle tallied four goals and six points in the winning effort, tying his school’s modern-day record for goals and points in a game.

The day before their loss to the Panthers, the Jumbos also suffered at the hands of a NESCAC rival, although Saturday’s game was much closer as Tufts fell 5-3 to the Williams Ephs. Tufts now stands at 3-3-1 and is 1-2-1 in the conference.

On Saturday, the Panthers were the first to strike and they never looked back. In the 10th minute, they capitalized on a power play as Belisle took the puck from freshman defenseman Connor Frick on the left wing and wristed it past Jumbos freshman keeper Derek Metcalfe, who got his first start in the contest.

Four minutes later, the Panthers used heads-up play to their advantage again, when freshman forward Brendan McGovern controlled a Tufts turnover and pushed it ahead to Belisle, who sent a backhanded shot past Metcalfe to double the Middlebury advantage.

Then, with just over a minute remaining in the first period, junior forward Mike Longo polished off a feed in front of the crease to extend the lead to 3-0. At the first intermission,

Alex Dennett / Tufts Daily Archives

Junior forward Kyle Gallegos scored his sixth goal of the season, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Middlebury Panthers, who beat the Jumbos 9-2. the Panthers had outshot the Jumbos 14-3.

“Middlebury plays a style different than the other teams we’ve played at this point in the season, and I think that we were a little slow in making the adjustments,” junior goalie Brian Phillips said. “They capitalized early on a couple mistakes. Offensively, they moved the puck really well and were able to find the open man.”

With the game seemingly already out of reach late in the second period, the puck finally bounced the Jumbos’ way.

Senior co-captain forward Dylan Plimmer jumped on the faceoff, sending the puck ahead to junior forward Kyle Gallegos, who notched his sixth goal of the season to get the Jumbos on the board.

Five minutes into the third period, Tufts pulled one closer when senior defenseman Jared Barker knocked home a power play goal from the right point.

However, the Jumbos still trailed 7-2, and as junior goalie Greg Jenkins closed out the game, the deficit grew to 9-2 with two Middlebury goals in the 15th and 20th minutes of the period.

“Middlebury knows how to use their skating abilities and speed on their bigger ice surface,” sophomore defenseman Blake Edwards said. “We had a tough time adjusting to that defensively, and because of that we weren’t able to create much offense either.”

Junior keeper Nick BonDurant and sophomore keeper Mike Peters combined for 18 saves in the Panthers’ winning effort. On

the other end, the Jumbos seemed unable to find a solution with any of their three goalkeepers.

Earlier, on Friday evening, the Jumbos played Williams in the two teams’ first contest since the Ephs ousted Tufts in the first round of last year’s NESCAC tournament.

Despite jumping out for an early lead, the Jumbos were unable to hold onto the game and surrendered four unanswered goals in the second and third periods, ultimately falling 5-3 to their conference foes.

“It was a game that would’ve been nice to win, given the fact that they knocked us out of the playoffs last season, but we will have another chance for redemption when we play them at home after the break,” Phillips said.

Women’s Track

Jumbos dominate first meet of season by

Melissa Wang

Daily Editorial Board

Just over three minutes into Friday’s game, Gallegos sent a feed ahead to sophomore defenseman Blake Edwards, who knocked one home to put the Jumbos up 1-0. Tufts held the advantage for most of the first period, but with under three minutes remaining, freshman defenseman Zander Masucci polished off his first collegiate goal, putting it past Phillips as Williams equalized.

Three minutes into the second period, Tufts regained the lead when Barker sent home the go-ahead goal, but it took the Ephs less than three minutes to tie things up once more. From there, Williams notched three more goals to lead the Jumbos 5-2 early in the third period. see HOCKEY, page 11

Men’s Squash

Tufts’ winning streak ends, NESCAC schedule begins

The women’s track and field team’s seven wins and numerous personal records set the tone for the indoor season at its first meet, the UMass Boston Indoor Invitational. Though there was no team scoring and only half the squad competed, those who ran, jumped and threw at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center on Saturday had an impressive showing.

Had the meet included scoring, coach Kristen Morwick said Tufts would have won easily.

“We had victories in a wide variety of events, which proves that the team is going to be really deep across the board,” junior Grace House said. “I think it definitely signals good things to come for the rest of the season.”

In their first-ever collegiate meet, the much-hyped freshmen accounted for three of the Jumbos’ victories. Freshman Hanako Shigenobu notched a first-place win in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:23:32, and her classmate Emily Smithwick won the pole vault, clearing a height of 10 feet and

Alex Dennett / Tufts Daily Archives

After successfully opening up its season 4-0, the No. 29 men’s squash team failed to carry its momentum into the final weekend of play in the fall semester, going 1-4 in five matches.

The Jumbos, whose only win came against No. 33 Colgate, dropped four matches against No. 15 Bates, No. 3 Harvard, No. 17 Navy and No. 23 Wesleyan, but despite their subpar performance, they are confident that they can rekindle their previous success following the break.

“My opponents were all really good this weekend, but I still felt I made some improvements in my game nonetheless,” said freshman Aditya Advani, a top recruit for new coach Joe McManus, who went 2-2 individually for the Jumbos.

see WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD, page 10

Throwing jumping events were a particular source of strength for the women’s track and field team.

see MEN’S SQUASH, page 11

by

Andy Linder

Contributing Writer