2013-02-13.pdf

THE TUFTS DAILY

Sunny 41/28

VOLUME LXV, NUMBER 15

TUFTSDAILY.COM

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Students interact with therapy dogs at Campus Center

Online Hillel co-sponsorship petition gains Tufts signatures

by Sarah

Zheng

Daily Editorial Board

Caroline Geiling / The Tufts Daily

Therapy dogs visited the Mayer Campus Center yesterday as part of Safety Awareness Week, a collaboration between Tufts University Police Department and members of the Tufts Community Union Senate Services Committee.

Piazza founder talks computers, entrepreneurship

by Smriti

Choudhury

Senior Staff Writer

Pooja Sankar, founder and CEO of social platform website Piazza, spoke to Tufts students yesterday afternoon about how her personal battles as a female and

ethnic minority in her university computer science classes drove her to create the now widely-used Piazza.

Sankar described Piazza as a free web platform where students can openly see PIAZZA, page 2

Caroline Geiling / The Tufts Daily

Pooja Sankar, the founder and CEO of the social platform Piazza, talked about the process of creating the popular website as a female and ethnic minority to a room of students in Halligan Hall yesterday.

Inside this issue

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

A petition created by a group of students at Harvard University circulating at Tufts and across the country calls for the national Hillel organization to remove its ban on allowing Hillel chapters to cosponsor events with other groups that advocate for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel.

The online petition was created in November by a Harvard-based campaign called Open Hillel and as of yesterday had garnered 471 signatures, 38 of which are from Tufts students.

The leader of the Tufts campaign calling on Hillel to reverse the ban, sophomore Julia Wedgle, said she promotes the group’s stance because she believes Hillel’s current policy restricts an open discourse about Israeli-Palestinian relations. Harvard’s Progressive Jewish Alliance created the campaign and petition, which has since spread nationwide.

Hillel’s current policy disallows its chapters from accepting sponsors or hosting speakers or organizations that either do not support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state or that advocate for boycotts, divestment and sanctions

against Israel.

Wedgle said the policy stifles the views of Jewish students who do not hold similar political views.

“For me, Judaism is supposed to be a religion of debate and critical discussion or a religious community of that,” she said. “[The policy] makes Hillel feel like a hostile place for Jews like me who do support the Palestinians and Palestinian rights.”

Tufts Hillel President Emma Goldstein, a senior, does not support the petition.

She said one of Hillel’s core values is promoting the right of Jewish people to selfdetermination. She said to co-sponsor events with students who support policies that undermine Israel’s right to exist through boycott, divestment or sanctions against the country would be contrary to Hillel’s views on the issue.

“Hillel’s policy is clear in welcoming all views and maintaining an open door policy,” Friends of Israel co-president Ayal Pierce, a sophomore, said. “While we avoid co-sponsoring with groups that deny Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state, we more than welcome discussing our disagreements.” see HILLEL, page 2

Primary Source continues to tweet during selfimposed suspension The Primary Source has continued to post tweets on its Twitter page while the print version remains inactive this semester due to a self-imposed suspension.

The suspension was enacted after public outcry in response to the conservative journal’s December 2012 publication of a controversial “Christmas carol.” The piece, entitled “Take Back the Night,” mocked the Take Back the Night event, which seeks to raise awareness about sexual assault on campus.

According to Primary Source Editorin-Chief Christopher Piraino, anonymous Source alumni are using the Twitter account to share current news, links to blog posts and anything conservative that Source members find interesting and important.

“Our twitter is just to show other Tufts people who follow The Primary Source these conservative articles, see if they’re interested,” Piraino, a junior, said. “It’s just a way to promote people’s ideas and the opposition. There’s no original content from The Primary Source.”

The Source twitter has also been posting about Tufts Community Union Senate initiatives and live-tweeting some of their meetings and questioning the positions of Tufts organizations including Tufts Divest and Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine. But Piraino said that the tweets do not fall under the journal’s self-imposed suspension. He explained that the Source is taking this semester to reevaluate its editorial practices.

“Really what it’s all about and what we’re doing is taking a step back and seeing — we know what we did wrong, we just overlooked something,” he said.

“We’re just trying to see what we could do better other than just rereading everything and getting more people.”

The self-imposed suspension was an

internal decision, according to Piraino.

He said the Source did not receive any notice from the administration other than Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman’s email to the Tufts community after the Source’s last edition.

“I sincerely hope that The Primary Source follows through on its promise to review its editorial practices before publishing another issue,” Tufts Community Union President Wyatt Cadley told the Daily in an email.

Despite the tweets, the Source has not published an issue since December, and its future as a publication depends on the returning staff, Piraino said. He added that the Source hopes to return to printing this fall.

“We just [have] to keep on doing it and not make any more mistakes and try and show everyone we’re not some evil student group, which some people have a vision of The Primary Source as that,” he said. “The fact [is] that we’re just a regular student group, and every four years there’s a different crowd.”

The Source expressed its regret for publishing the carol, which originally appeared in a 1999 issue, in a statement sent to the Daily by email last semester.

Piraino hopes that members of the Tufts community can look beyond the incident in forming their opinions of the Source.

“In terms of the view that Tufts has of The Primary Source, I would hope that it’s not just from this one carol but [that] they read our articles and see what we actually think and see what our viewpoints are, rather than just an aberrant mistake that we made,” Piraino said.

— by Lizz Grainger

Today’s sections

Netflix hopes to lure subscribers with compelling “House of Cards.”

“Sound City” features an all-star cast in a look back at a legedary recording studio,

see ARTS, page 5

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts & Living Editorial | Op-Ed

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Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Daily File Photo

An online petition calling for the international Hillel organization to reverse its co-sponsorship policy is circulating on the Hill and on campuses across the country.

Hillel responds to petition on Israeli political views HILLEL

continued from page 1

The Tufts chapter of Hillel implemented the national policy in December 2010, declining to co-sponsor an event with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which brought two speakers to the Hill to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In that case, Hillel leadership cited the actions of other SJP chapters that had demonstrated political

views contradictory to Hillel’s support of Israel.

Tufts Hillel executive director Rabbi Jeffrey Summit said the policy prohibiting co-sponsorship does not necessarily rule out open discussion.

“We believe in free speech on campus, but that does not mean that we are obligated to sponsor speakers or partner with organizations that essentially don’t believe that Israel has a right to exist as a

Jewish, democratic state,” Summit said.

Wedgle is also a founder of Tufts Jewish Voice for Peace ( JVP), which supports boycotting and divesting from companies that directly profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine. She said the co-sponsorship policy has driven many supporters of Palestine away from association with Hillel.

“I think I’m the only Jewish person left in groups like SJP who still goes to

Sankar talks about infectious nature of entrepreneurship

Bill Richardson to speak at Tufts Energy Conference

PIAZZA

continued from page 1

MCT

Former United States Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson (A ‘70, F ‘71) will address the Tufts community at the eighth annual Tufts Energy Conference on March 2 as one of the conference’s keynote speakers.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Powering Global Energy Security,” and it will feature two keynote speakers and six panels during the weekend of March 2 and 3, according to Conference Chair Geoffrey Finger. Energy analyst Joseph Stanislaw is the other confirmed keynote speaker.

Richardson, a Tufts alumnus, is also the former governor of New Mexico and former United States ambassador to the United Nations.

“Mr. Richardson is really the perfect keynote speaker for this conference,” Finger, a second-year master’s student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, said. “His experiences as an ambassador to the United Nations and as Secretary of Energy give him a perfect view of both the international and domestic implications of the challenges facing energy security.”

Hillel,” Wedgle said. “There’s a lot of differing opinions at Hillel and within the Jewish community, and there [are] a lot of people I talked to who don’t go to [Hillel] because of the policy there.”

Wedgle believes that the intent of the petition transcends the issue of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

“It’s more about having critical debate in the community,” she said.

Richardson has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as Secretary of Energy and as ambassador to the UN. “As governor, he ... [required] utilities to meet 20 percent of electrical demands through renewable resources, so he can really speak about the political challenges and potential for progress in the energy industry,” Finger said.

The fourth annual Tufts Energy Showcase will also take place during the conference, during which nearly 20 local energy firms will present and share information regarding the local energy sector, and many of these firms will be looking to hire, Finger said.

Other lecture panels at the conference will focus on international energy security with topics including Arctic oil exploration, energy initiatives in the U.S. Department of Defense and energy efficiency in China.

Tickets to the entire two-day conference are available online to Tufts undergraduate students for $10 until Feb. 16, after which they will be raised to $15.

— by Denali Tietjen

engage with one another without the fear and intimidation that often suppresses student participation in the classroom.

Hundreds of campuses across the country, including Tufts, use Piazza for classes.

In front of a group of students at Halligan Hall during the talk hosted by the Department of Computer Science and Tufts Women in Computer Science, Sankar detailed her interest in interpersonal dynamics and her decision to attend business school at Stanford University while taking a break from the technical field. According to Sankar, she lived and breathed code but wanted something more. Looking back, she said that her technical background was invaluable when pursuing her business venture and also helped her avoid any gender discrimination.

“The software skills and the emphasis on process were key before I embarked on Piazza,” Sankar said. “I don’t necessarily know if there is [more] bias for men than women in business. You just need a solid background.”

Sankar described entrepreneurship as an addiction that created and still creates unparalleled motivational drive. She feels pushed to construct a better product for her users, students, with more features and increased accessibility. Additionally, Sankar values student input and has constantly sought student opinion ever since Piazza’s beginnings in 2009 at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

“I really believe that Piazza is an addiction to me, and my level of fulfillment is unmatched,” she said. “Piazza is for its users, and I am motivated to increase the levels of engagement in the classroom with the suggestions and feedback from students.”

Piazza was born as a result of Sankar’s personal classroom experience in the United States, the difficulty she endured transitioning from a more traditional classroom setting in India and the obstacles she faced as a minority female student in a

prestigious engineering school in India, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

“I went to school with a class of about three girls and the rest boys,” she said. “I felt isolated from my male classmates at IIT as I often worked alone. I felt another separation in the U.S. as I came from a traditional background, and the American classroom experience was frightening.”

Sankar received a master’s degree from the University of Maryland, College Park following her education at IIT. At Tufts, Piazza is used in several computer science classes. Jessie Serrino, president of Tufts Women in Computer Sciences, said she related to the fear Sankar felt in the classroom and said that Piazza has been a great learning tool in understanding the material in her computer science classes.

“Whenever I have questions, I am often too embarrassed to bring them to attention in class because I don’t want to look as if I didn’t understand a reading or analyze a problem,” Serrino, a sophomore, said. “The feature to post anonymously on Piazza and read that other students are having the same questions is both beneficial and reassuring.”

Institutions nationwide and worldwide have used Piazza for a variety of subjects from plant biology to aerodynamics in an effort to further engage students in the classroom.

“Piazza is left in the hands of instructors,” Sankar said. “Instructors structure the function of Piazza and mostly integrate Piazza into their class as a means for efficient communication.”

For the future, Sankar hopes that Piazza will venture into other sectors such as sales in addition to expanding its usage as an educational tool in academia. Sankar believes that her company will grow by word-of-mouth and students will tell instructors about its advantages.

“We do not have a large PR or marketing team,” she said. “We are just a small group of people with a common vision of building an efficient communication core.”

Features

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Alexa Petersen | Jeminist: A Jumbo Feminist

Let’s talk about ‘Girls’

T

Nick Pfosi / The Tufts Daily

Lifting of the ban on women in combat could affect members of Tufts ROTC as they serve in the military in the future.

Lift of ban on women in combat recognizes equality, raises questions by

Charlotte Gilliland Daily Editorial Board

American women marked a historic moment on Jan. 24. On that day, former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta lifted the ban on women in combat, saying that it is “the responsibility of every citizen to protect the nation.” In a statement, President Barack Obama concurred, saying that women’s already significant contribution to the military proves that “valor knows no gender.”

Chuck Hagel, currently nominated to serve as Secretary of Defense, has also expressed his commitment towards the new policy of equality of women in combat. At his confirmation hearing on Jan. 31, Hagel stated: “I will work with the service chiefs as we officially open combat positions to women, a decision I strongly support.”

The decision overturned a 1994 Pentagon rule, instituted under the Clinton administration, which banned women from combat roles such as infantry, artillery and armor.

This policy change, which was advised by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will open up 230,000 jobs on the front lines to women, according to a Jan. 23 NBC article. Panetta said that time will be allowed for each branch of the military to decide whether any positions should be excluded and to implement all necessary changes.

Despite a generally positive bipartisan reception of the decision, many maintain that the measure is a merely symbolic gesture of recognition to women who have already been serving in combat. 150 women have died and 1,000 women have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The general consensus in the country is that it has been a long time coming ... If you look at what it means to be in combat, you see that a lot of women have been serving in these capacities for a very long time,” senior Aparna Ramanan, co-chair of Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES), said.

ALLIES, a group that operates under Tufts Institute for Global Leadership (IGL), works to foster a stronger connection between the nation’s future civilian leaders and military leaders.

“The idea is that if we can establish these connections now, that in the future when you are a leader, and these connections really matter, you have someone you can call upon,” Ramanan said.

ROTC, or Reserve Officer Training Corps, is another student group involved in the military, specifically training students for entry into the armed forces. Members of the ROTC chapter at Tufts declined to comment on the ban’s lifting.

Ramanan expressed strong support for the decision to lift the ban on women in combat, claiming that official recognition will allow women in the military to advance their careers. “[These female soldiers] may not have been identified as ‘in combat,’ so it’s giving recognition to people who have served in

these capacities for a long time. It opens up a lot of doors for women,” she said.

Professor of Sociology Paul Joseph focuses his research on the politics surrounding foreign and defense policy and teaches courses such as Sociology of War and Peace and the Sociology of Globalization and Social Change. He agreed that lifting the ban essentially legitimizes a practice that has already been occurring.

“There has been a blurring in the front lines,” he said. “One of the real reasons for the lifting the ban is that in real life the ban has been lifted anyway.”

Susan Ostrander, interim chair of the Department of Sociology, continues to question the logistical implementation of the decision.

“Like others who support gender equality, my first reaction was, and is, positive. At the same time, I have lots of questions,” she told the Daily in an email. “Why was the decision not being implemented immediately, since part of the rationale was that women were actually already serving in combat positions and had been for some time? Mightn’t the job assessments that will occur between now and 2016 end up with women still being more likely than men to be in lower-valued, lower-rewarded jobs?”

Joseph noted that many traditional aspects of the military are rooted in masculine gender norms, despite the clear shift towards equality for women.

“Specifically for combat, there is the warrior role, which I think is a masculine role,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that women can’t do it, but the role is a masculine one ... It could be that these masculine traits are crucial to the role.”

The established idea of the masculine role of a soldier in combat raises many important issues, some regarding group cohesion within the military, Joseph said.

“A lot of the training for soldiers, [like] shaved heads [and] group camaraderie ... is based on shared masculinity. Studies of what makes for effective soldiering [focus] on those small-group dynamics,” Joseph said.

Will women alter the success of these small group dynamics and the overall efficacy of the military? Ramanan doesn’t think so.

“When they wanted to integrate the army, people said it [would] affect group cohesion.

When they wanted to repeal “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” people said it [would] affect group cohesion,” she said. “Quite frankly, our military is doing fine. There’s a reason we don’t fight traditional land battles anymore. When I see our military’s success in the past few years, I’m not concerned about group cohesion.”

Another important aspect of the decision is how it could affect sexual harassment in the military, an increasing problem that continues to go unreported to superior officers, according to Ramanan.

“There are the increased chances for sexual harassment and sexual assault,” Ramanan said. “Sexual harassment is a big issue in the military. Especially given the chain of command, it is difficult for women to feel

comfortable. Sometimes it gets reported and superiors choose not to act on it.”

Some argue that letting women fight in combat positions could theoretically decrease sexual harassment by emphasizing equality, but Joseph maintains that it would take more than simply lifting the ban.

“Supporters of removing the ban have said that this is crucial toward ending secondclass status [for women] in the military and ... that will help diminish higher levels of harassment,” he said. “The thing that would end it the most is if you held men more responsible for their behavior and if other men held the male perpetrator more responsible. You hear of women not going to the latrine alone, going to the latrine armed. It completely debunks the idea of camaraderie.”

Another question is how many women will actually enter these new combat positions.

“My guess would be even though combat roles have now been opened for women, many women will not go for those roles,” Joseph said. “Women will continue to be helicopter pilots, they’ll fly jets, they’ll do a whole range of different kinds of activities, but not too many will enter the combat roles.”

The new availability of combat roles will allow more women to be promoted to the higher ranks of the military, according to Ramanan.

“In order to be promoted to ranks of general, a lot of times the requirement is you have to serve in combat roles and combat positions,” she said. “If we want to see more women in the high ranks of the military, it’s important to open up combat roles to them.”

In the context of Afghanistan, however, Joseph expressed trepidation about seeing women in that combat zone.

“Within the existing priorities, Iraq [and] Afghanistan, which are both disasters in my opinion, to say to female soldiers, ‘You can prove yourself in that arena,’ well I think that’s a mixed thing,” he said. “Proving yourself in a mission that is erroneous in the first place ... has a price.”

Instead, Joseph looks towards the future.

“I like to think we can make a very different world, one without war, one with a significantly lower profile of the military ... where the military are militarized peace-keepers,” he said.

Ostrander said her main concern lies in the current standards of success in a greater context of gender equality.

“Why are the standards for the highest rewarded positions apparently still based on physical strength and its counterpart, ‘mental toughness,’ which is a code for worry about women’s supposed emotionality?” she said in an email. “Those privileged standards lead inevitably to doubts about whether women can truly ‘measure up’ ... So in the big picture, it seems to me that gender inequality in the military and elsewhere should by now not be simply about letting women do what men do, although that certainly is important.”

he show “Girls” on HBO was already awkward. Chock-full of privileged narratives, hopelessly self-involved characters and occasionally oppressive and/or troubling sex scenes, “Girls” is a show feminists don’t know what to do with. Do we like it or do we hate it? It’s almost as awkward as we felt when Ann Romney, Mitt Romney’s wife, screamed “I love you, women!” at the Republican National Convention.

Anyway, this past episode was the awkwardest of the awkward. Here’s the short version: Hannah was the only character of the four main female characters featured, and the entire episode consists of her meeting a very handsome 40-something doctor named Joshua — then they have lots of sex and hang out at his house for two days straight.

I sat in my living room with my six other housemates to watch this episode, and we hated it. We hated it from start to finish.

We couldn’t put our finger on why, but it was no good. Turns out we weren’t the only critics.

With the close of the episode on HBO, the Internet exploded with criticism of the weirdest and least-enjoyable “Girls” episode yet. I felt like the departure from realism was intentional. “Joshua was a total fantasy man, which is why we’ll never see him again,” The Huffington Post’s Margaret Wheeler Johnson said in a blog post. Daniel Engber of Slate so very gracefully said, “Why should this coupling be so difficult to fathom? I think it’s because Hannah is especially and assertively ugly in this episode.” They can’t figure out why Hannah gets the hunky guy. They just can’t figure it out. References to Hannah’s “looks” and weight, blatant or subtle, are splattered over every review.

If you haven’t already, check out Jezebel’s article on the episode, entitled “What Kind of Guy Does Lena Dunham Deserve?”

Reading this article was a very awkward epiphany for me, my housemates and I hope many others. The article points out what we were literally just too stupid to see. We think this episode is weird, awful, terrible, tragic, etc. because it seems to us completely unrealistic. It seems to us completely unrealistic because we don’t believe that women who look like Hannah get to be with men who look like Joshua.

We don’t think he would tolerate her emotional “outbursts,” her requests to be pleasured (the thought!) and her inquisitiveness about his past relationships. A particular line is very telling, as the article points out to us. Joshua asks whether Hannah thinks she is beautiful. She remarks, “I do, it’s just not always the feedback that I’ve been given.” Lena Dunham is literally standing on the rooftops and screaming to us the hypocrisies of the privilege of beauty, and what you do or do not “deserve” because of it. And we dropped the ball.

I missed the mark. I’m a self-identified feminist, and I write a column about feminism, for god’s sake. And I still missed it.

I missed every inch of it. Did I explicitly criticize her body or her “rudeness” or the unlikelihood of her getting Joshua? No. But did I still think it was unrealistic. Yes. And that’s still a problem. I’m putting it in writing and confessing my sins. I have written this piece, first, for those who made the mistake I did and, second, to say that I’m not perfect. We’re not perfect.

People who believe in social justice make mistakes sometimes. We overlook oppressive paradigms that have been mainstays of our upbringing, even when we try really hard not to. For better or for worse, I did it. And I won’t do it again. That is what I learned from the fifth episode of the second season of “Girls.”

Alexa Petersen is a senior majoring in political science and peace and justice studies. She can be reached at Alexa.Petersen@tufts.edu.

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TV Review

Netflix snaps up dense, dystopian British miniseries ‘House of Cards’

Adaptation of British miniseries certain to snare American audience by

Lancy Downs

Contributing Writer

“House of Cards” is a big gamble for Netflix. On Feb. 1, Netflix released all 13 episodes of the show’s first season to its subscribers. Netflix is making significant strides to produce more and more original content. The much-discussed fourth season of Fox’s beloved sitcom, “Arrested Development,” is set to air this May and is one of Netflix’s most highprofile initiatives. Netflix’s main concern is whether or not people subscribe to Netflix, rather than whether they actually tune into the shows. And Netflix needs shows like “House of Cards” to help bring in those extra subscribers.

Still, if future endeavors are as addictive as “House of Cards,” Netflix need not worry about viewers tuning out after a few episodes. “House of Cards,” it seems, was made for binge-watching.

The series is an adaptation of a British miniseries of the same name that aired in 1990. This version is set in present day Washington, D.C., and its protagonist is Francis “Frank” Underwood (Kevin Spacey), a Democrat from South Carolina’s fifth

Courtesy Pinguino via Flickr Creative Commons

see CARDS, page 6

Kevin Spacey showcases his talent as the ruthless and cunning Francis Underwood on “House of Cards.”

Movie Review

‘Sound City’ stylishly documents historic music studio with all-star cast by

Dan O’Leary

Daily Editorial Board

When listening to an album or song, most listeners usually don’t give too much thought to how the music was actually recorded. In his directorial debut with the documentary “Sound City,” Dave Grohl has arrived to shine a spotlight on the art of recording, with a special example in mind: The legendary Sound City Studios and their Neve analog recording console.

While a documentary about a recording console sounds anything but fascinating, director Grohl (better known for his day job as frontman for the Foo Fighters and former drummer of Nirvana) injects the film with a heartfelt enthusiasm that helps make “Sound City” a fascinating look at a bygone era in music history.

The initial focus of the film is on the recording studio, which opened in Los Angeles in 1969 and was responsible for a huge number of classic albums.

A short list of artists who recorded at Sound City includes Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Elton John and the Grateful Dead—and that’s just from the ‘70s. The significance of this studio isn’t lost on Grohl, who uses one of the first sequences of the documentary to highlight the contribution of the studio’s signature sound to rock ‘n’ roll’s history.

The first two-thirds of “Sound City” are a loosely chronological look at the studio that moves through the decades.

It features interviews with the former owners and sound engineers who offer unique perspectives on what made the studio so special, such as explaining why the acoustics of the main studio in Sound City were perfect for recording drums. All of this unfolds at a brisk pace thanks to Grohl’s direction, which ensures that all interviews and stories get their fair share of screen time but never feel like they’re dragging.

Even with all the heavyweight art-

ists who have recorded at Sound City, Grohl makes the custom-built Neve console the true star of the film, treating it with all the reverence of a historical artifact. The console’s initial reveal at the beginning of the documentary has all the trappings of a bigbudget movie, with the camera slowly panning over the various dials and knobs before pulling back to reveal the behemoth machine in all its glory.

A love for that analog console and

what it represents is the main connection between all of the musicians who appear in the film. “Sound City” uses the interviews to highlight the hidden role that the Neve console has played in rock history.

Drawing most of his interview material from artists who have recorded at Sound City, Grohl has assembled a truly stunning cast for this documentary. In addition to all see SOUND, page 6

Courtesy Anthony Abbott via Flickr Creative Commons

Dave Grohl directs “Sound City,” a documentary about Sound City Studios.

Melissa MacEwen | The Roaming Fork

Nothing but coelomates Everyone likes phalluses, and everyone likes seafood. So what better way to spend Christmas Eve than with some sea cucumbers?

My family arranged for our family friend Stefano to join our Christmas Eve dinner, as he was temporarily wifeless. He would be in charge of dessert. Maybe it’s because I’m generally too lazy to make actual entrees, but I make a mean appetizer, and I decided that Christmas Eve would therefore be the perfect night to prepare a sea cucumber amuse-bouche. Obviously. With hours until Stefano’s arrival, it was go time.

To be fair, this decision wasn’t entirely out of line. In addition to its international reputation as a health food — unsurprising considering its low fat content and high levels of vitamin C — the sea cucumber is also reputed to be able to cure everything from joint pain to hypertension to low male libido. Mostly, though, sea cucumbers are eaten as a delicacy and make appearances at formal gatherings and ceremonies. For my recipe, I decided on a rather intricate recipe from “Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking.” “Sea cucumbers braised with steamed black mushrooms” sounded tasty enough, and with a few adaptations, it would be fairly straightforward to find all of the ingredients.

Though most sea cucumbers in the California Bay Area are dried, I was lucky enough to find a package of frozen cucumbers at my local Ranch 99 Asian grocery store. They were decidedly underwhelming when I opened the package, but I was relieved that they smelled more like clean sea water than dead marine life.

Rinsing and slicing the cucumbers took a decidedly philosophical turn when it came time to remove the intestines. Unsurprisingly, sea cucumbers are little more than muscular tubes with a few intestines inside.

Still, we humans aren’t really any different.

Coelomates for life, my friends.

The cooking mainly centered on boiling and steaming ingredients at slightly different times, so though there was a lot of measuring and running around, things went pretty smoothly. After the last step, in which I combined the sea cucumbers and the mushrooms before adding the corn starch (which honestly seemed completely unnecessary at the end, and resulted in everything looking a little bit dull and gelatinous), it was the moment of truth. I filled ramekins for myself and my family and grabbed a fork. Before I dug in, though, I hesitated.

The cucumber quivered slightly on my fork, sandwiched between a shitake mushroom and a piece of canned bamboo. It was too late to back out, I thought, and I shoved the fork into my mouth.

I needn’t have hesitated. I honestly loved it. Cooking the cucumbers and the mushrooms in very similar sauces made the entire dish cohesive, but nuanced. The bold earthiness of the mushrooms undercut the tang of the bamboo, and the scallions gave everything a bit of a kick. True to expectation, the cucumbers had picked up the flavor of the sauce, but managed not to be too salty or overpowering. I was quite pleased with myself. Most surprising was just how unintimidating the cucumbers managed to be once combined into the dish — they were camouflaged by the mushrooms, and their mild, slightly rubbery texture tasted eerily similar to rice noodles.

Though I think I enjoyed this dish considerably more than my family or poor Stefano, ―whose dessert was delicious, by the way. ― I would make this again in a heartbeat. I might be too scared to try to prepare cucumber with different accompanying ingredients lest it disrupt the dish’s balance, but I’m sure cucumber would also be delicious with a number of other vegetable pairings.

Join me next time for taro!

Melissa MacEwen is a junior majoring in biology and English. She can be reached at Melissa.Macewen@tufts.edu.

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‘House of Cards’ antithesis of typical governmental dramas CARDS

continued from page 5

congressional district and the House Majority Whip. When he is overlooked for Secretary of State by newly inaugurated 45th president Garrett Walker (Michael Gill), Underwood initiates a calculated, intricate course of revenge.

Spacey plays Underwood with delicious cunning. His southern drawl is honeyed and smooth, but underneath that comforting charm he is harsh and exacting.

He has a remarkable power to control all the different players in his world and play them like pawns in a game of chess. He stays behind the scenes, carefully coordinating every detail, exploiting every weakness and pulling every string he can get his hands on.

Every so often, Frank will turn to the camera and address the viewer in an aside, giving small introductions to characters or commentary: “I love her more than sharks love blood,” he says about his wife, Claire (Robin Wright).

It is an interesting technique, and one that could play very poorly — see: season one of “Sex and the City” (19982004). But the potentially off-putting style ends up being incorporated naturally and quite seamlessly. Stylistically, it was a risky choice. In anybody else’s hands, it might have fallen flat, but Spacey pulls it off with panache.

Underwood’s two most important relationships are with two very different women. His wife Claire is an ice queen who runs a nonprofit with a cool and unforgiving hand. Her office, with its pristine white desks and stately marble columns, appropriately conveys her crisp, punishing attitude. Her relationship with Frank makes for a dynamic centerpiece to the show — they control their respective worlds, but at home seem to be in many ways a normal married couple. Underneath the semblance of normalcy, however, there is a ripple of something almost sinister. There’s an unspoken deal

between the two, which creates the sense that their marriage is more partnership than love.

In the first few episodes, Frank comes in contact with Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara), a journalist at the fictional newspaper The Washington Herald. She’s young, pretty and ambitious — she wants to be writing about politics but is stuck in the metro section. She brazenly shows up at the Underwood’s Washington, D.C. home and negotiates a deal with him, thus making her another tool in his wheelhouse. As her secret with Underwood propels her to new heights, Zoe is confronted with new challenges and new relationships to negotiate. She is smart and eager, but her ambition, like nearly everything else in the show, seems to have a dark underbelly. We don’t quite know how far she will go or what moral compass directs her behavior. And as she gets more and more involved with Frank, the answer to that question becomes increasingly ambiguous.

Corey Stoll appears as Congressman Peter Russo. Though Underwood has caught wind of Russo’s indiscretions, Russo allies himself with Underwood and becomes slavishly obedient to him in order to save his career, much to the disgust of his girlfriend-cum-staffer Christina Gallagher (Kristen Connolly).

Other supporting characters include no-nonsense, tough-as-nails White House Chief of Staff Linda Vasquez (Sakina Jaffrey) and Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), Underwood’s obliging chief of staff.

David Fincher directed the first two episodes of “House of Cards” and, with his talented cast and sharp writing, he did a masterful job. But with the show’s ominous tone, it is the anti-”West Wing” — a far cry Aaron Sorkin’s world of idealism and grand speechmaking. This is backstabbing at its very worst — and if Netflix gets what it wants, viewers will eat it up like cake.

Arts & Living

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

‘Sound City’ a candid hit for both music and film buffs SOUND

continued from page 5

the key players associated with Sound City Studios, Grohl talks with musicians who recorded there at different points throughout the decades. The varied list includes Neil Young, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, Trent Reznor and John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival, and that barely scratches the surface. In nearly every interview, the artists are candid and at ease talking to a fellow musician in Grohl. This produces honest reflections on the magic behind Sound City and some fascinating anecdotes of time spent at the studio.

Of course, any music documentary is only as good as its soundtrack, and “Sound City” provides in spades. The majority of the film’s soundtrack is taken directly from the works that were recorded there, helping place the events and stories in the context of their time period and offering direct proof of the type of sound achievable through the studio’s use of analog.

The final third of the documentary is where things get really musically interesting. Grohl records members of the Foo Fighters playing with some of rock’s greats as they record new tracks with the console, which Grohl purchased upon the studio’s closure in 2011. These collaborations are the subject of the film’s final part.

They add a dynamic energy to the film and make the console’s story feel like it is coming full circle. Some of the highlights include Stevie Nicks’ fierce take on “You Can’t Fix This” and a pseudo-Nirvana reunion with Grohl, Pat Smear and Krist Novoselic backing guest Paul McCartney on “Cut Me Some Slack.”

“Sound City” serves as Dave Grohl’s tribute to the analog era, when musicianship was emphasized above Pro-Tools or digital fixes. Having assembled a cast filled with rock royalty and influential musicians, Grohl has made “Sound City” a must-see documentary for any music fan and a fascinating look at a piece of rock history.

Courtesy of Eva Renaldi via Flickr Creative Commons

Stevie Nicks is one of the musicians Grohl interviewed for “Sound City”.

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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Primary Source tweets contrary to selfimposed suspension

THE TUFTS DAILY Nina Goldman Brionna Jimerson

Editorial | Op-Ed

The Primary Source, Tufts’ “journal of conservative thought,” decided last semester to suspend its publishing activities after shocking the campus with a series of Christmas carols that they say were published accidentally and that were received on campus as deeply inappropriate and derogatory. The choice came after significant backlash, including an email to the student body from Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman condemning the carol. As this semester has gone on, however, it appears the Source has redirected its media attention and activities to its Twitter page. The Source account benignly tweets links to conservative articles and websites, as well as offering commentary on campus affairs via their Twitter page, apparently by alumni of the publication.

The Primary Source acts contrary to its declared intentions for this semester by tweeting commentary on campus affairs, therein acting out the goals of its publication via social media.

The Source has tweeted about a range of issues this semester, touching on Tufts

Community Union (TCU) Senate affairs as well as the campaign for university endowment divestment from fossil fuels.

It offers to its 370 followers its own brand of snarky commentary on the news involving these issues in the same vein as its written publications. For instance, the Source on Saturday tweeted, “[TCU Senate] passes resolution against investing in fossil fuel assets, but not against purchasing gasoline or driving automobiles.” In addition to discussing these current issues from their its perspective, the Source has often tweeted links to conservative publications and groups.

Although not quite the same as publishing a paper issue that includes multiple original articles and other pieces, tweeting still breaks the suspension in the sense that it allows the Primary Source to comment and give opinions without having finished the review of its editorial policies that its current hiatus is meant to enable.

This is not to say that the Source does not — or should not — express

legitimate conservative views. Rather, the Source, as perhaps one of a very small number of non-liberal groups on campus, is deeply important in keeping Tufts students aware of the legitimacy of conservative ideas and viewpoinst.

In attempting to do this, the Source has taken up a worthy cause. However, the importance of having a publication like the Source does not inherently absolve them of their offensive from last semester. If the Source’s editors — the tweeters have chosen to remain anonymous despite repeated requests that they reveal their identity — are attempting to convince Tufts’ liberals of the merits of conservative viewpoints, they might consider taking a stricter approach to their self-imposed suspension. Tweeting about the issues of the day with a sense of snark only serves to demonstrate a lack of commitment to reforming and in the end weakens the Source’s attempt to build a solid platform from which it can honestly and appropriately debate conservative ideas and viewpoints.

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Off the Hill | University of Central Florida

Obama’s silence shows hypocrisy

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Anwar al-Awlaki, who became a radical Muslim cleric and leading figure of al-Qaida in Yemen, was killed September 2011 by a drone strike launched from a U.S. aircraft. He was also a United States citizen.

Al-Awlaki’s death isn’t necessarily a truly senseless one — even if he was technically an American. What is senseless, however, is the refusal of the Obama administration to acknowledge the occurrence and its sweeping it under the rug.

Al-Qaida is an organization responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans as well as our current involvement in the Middle East. Few would criticize the loss of one of its top agents. But what many could, and should criticize, is the silence from the president on the situation.

The Obama administration’s continued silence on the issue screams hypocrisy, considering he, as well as other democrats, slammed Mitt Romney all throughout the election for not opening up or being transparent enough in foreign policy.

Every head of state has secrets.

That’s an obvious component of the job. Classified files, inherently, don’t get

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.

released to the public and, as private people, we are not privy to certain conversations. That’s fine. What isn’t fine is the secrecy running rampant in Obama’s administration at the present time.

More specifically, the administration refused to release a summary of arguments about why the executive branch is within its power to order a killing of an American citizen without any other form of approval. This summary was unclassified but eventually discovered and published by NBC News. As Americans, we are affected by the government’s haziness on arguments especially during wartime.

Let’s avoid the argument that Obama could order any of our deaths on the fly, and we still have stake in the issue. Why does a president, or one specific branch, get to make such a decision without the approval of the other branches? Checks and balances are in place for a reason, and bypassing them opens up a can of worms disastrous for everyone — especially the American people.

The circumstances surrounding the summary is reminiscent of the Pentagon Papers save for one key detail. Unlike the Pentagon Papers, this summary was an unclassified file. No enormous breach of American security should be expected thanks to the release. What comes as a result of the leak is a better understanding of who our president truly is.

Obama has proven himself a successful candidate after being re-elected following an economic recession.

We put our faith in him as our leader, but that can quickly change if his actions continue to be so secretive and surreptitious.

The president blasted Romney for behaving in that specific manner, yet it seems Obama behaves similarly.

Why should the American people put stock in a leader who not only follows a “do as I say, not as I do” policy on leadership, but is also unwilling to be transparent to the public he serves?

Our last president, who we blindly trusted, sent us on a wild goose chase for weapons of mass destruction, gave us illegal wiretapping and indefinite detention. One would hope we learned from our mistakes.

Although Obama has proven that he can be trusted, these recent instances of secrecy and deception cannot.

Transparency was one of the best points of Obama. Sadly, it seems things have begun to shift. The American people cannot allow that to happen. Accountability in our president is a must.

We cannot condone the acts of a head of state who puts his branch in absolute power. And we cannot condone the actions of a president who does not hold up to the expectations he sets for the opposition.

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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Tufts Daily

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Op-Ed

OP-ED

Walt Laws-MacDonald | Show Me The Money!

AAArated fraud

How severe weather affects our campus works: considerations for the future by

Libby Shrobe, Kyle Carbone, Emily Weinrebe, and Astrid Fuentes

Following up on the acknowledgement from the Daily regarding all of the hard work of our campus facilities and dining hall workers we, on behalf of the Tufts Labor Coalition (TLC), would like to extend our own personal thank you. At the same time we would also like to draw attention some of the flaws in how our Tufts workers were accommodated during the storm. As the editorial board pointed out, there were several instances where workers stayed overnight in order to arrive to their shifts on time in the morning. Though the overnight stay was a matter of safety, accommodations provided to the staff did not reflect the standards of community and dignity that we should expect from our university.

The editorial board noted that “some employees slept on benches and in sleeping bags in Aidekman Arts Center, Carmichael Hall and Lewis Hall.” TLC members have since spoken to both facilities workers and dining staff in Dewick Dining Hall. Those facilities workers said they were not provided with any sleeping bags, mattresses, pillows or blankets. The three Dewick workers who

we spoke to were also not provided these amenities. They explained that their original plan was to sleep on the benches in the lobby of the dining hall, though they were forced to move to sleep on the floor in the conference room of the building because they were not given instructions on how to shut off all of the lights of the lobby in Dewick.

As a group dedicated to the fair treatment and dignity of all workers on this campus, these reports troubled us. It’s common knowledge that there are multiple empty rooms throughout the campus dorms, particularly the quarantine rooms which those of us here for the swine flu outbreak remember well. It seems that basic measures could easily have been taken to allocate these rooms to those workers who stayed overnight in order to serve the student body. If provision of rooms is not available, the least that facilities could do is supply our workers with basic sleeping necessities such as blankets and pillows. Tufts had ample notice of the severe weather alerts and one question this raises is whether Tufts equally prioritizes the dignity and safety of the workers to that of the students.

Again we would like to emphasize our thanks to the workers who gave up time with their families and a night in their own bed in

order to serve our campus. However, there are still issues that need to be worked out in how workers are accommodated in these situations. Though it might seem like a minute concern, this points to the ease with which the issue could have been addressed and can be solved in the future. Severe weather affects Tufts’ campus often and if we don’t address this lack of accommodation now, it is likely to surface again. Therefore TLC will be following up with facilities administration to discuss the possibilities of developing an emergency weather response plan that encompasses the issues addressed above. It is essential that we make students, staff and workers feel safe and cared for at all times.

Libby Shrobe is a senior majoring in clinical psychology. She can be reached at Elizabeth.Shrobe@tufts.edu. Kyle Carbone is a senior majoring in psychology and Spanish. He can be reached at Kyle.Carbone@tufts.edu. Emily Weinrebe is a senior majoring in peace and justice studies. She can be reached at Emily.

Weinrebe@tufts.edu. Astrid Fuentes is a junior majoring in international relations and political science. She can be reached at Astrid.Fuentes@tufts.edu.

Off the Hill | Brown University

How we work together by

Daniel Delaney

Brown Daily Herald

How do we work together? That seems to me to be the question for this new year.

We’ve certainly spent more than enough time learning how to disagree.

Just ask the United States Congress how much they know about that. I’ve learned a lot from them about disagreement and not working with others. U.S. history teaches us this country was built on compromise, a system of give-and-take and, above all, an underlying mutual respect for the person sitting next to you. The idea was that if our representatives worked together, the country would work better.

But you know what’s a great example of our country’s compromising values? The $1.3 billion that lawmakers cost the U.S. government while they were holding the debt ceiling hostage in 2011. The threat of a potential debt downgrade nearly blasted another hole in our already-precarious economic system. The $1.3 billion was the minimum loss estimate. But what’s ironic is they did it all over again on the fiscal cliff.

A message to Congress: The next time there’s another chance to have an incredibly vacuous argument about whether or not to move the country forward, please remember how much money it costs to bicker.

But Congress certainly wasn’t the only one teaching class in recent years. My man Mitt Romney sure gave his fair share of classroom lectures. I learned from Romney that changing your opinions to please people is a good way to try to get

ahead in the world. I learned that if you work toward avoiding peoples’ concerns, rich folks will give you lots of money to keep doing it. But most importantly, I learned that caring 47 percent about anything gets you nowhere — sorry Mitt.

I mock what I watched this November, but it’s not with pleasure that I do so. I love this country and I find it disheartening that the 2012 presidential election reminded me more of a censored Jerry Springer episode than a contest between great men of great intent and aspiration.

President Obama lost the first debate not because Romney had any content to his argument, but because Obama underestimated Romney’s capacity for obfuscation and his determination to reposition himself — yet again — to suit the mood of the general electorate.

It’s sad that we live in a time in which people are so uninformed and uninterested in working towards a common good and that politics is now a form of entertainment — or blood sport — instead of the respected form of civil service that produced great men and women in our history. How can it be that we claim to be the descendants of the “Greatest Generation,” a group of people whose great strength lay in their understanding that, at times, individual sacrifice and compromise are necessary in order for everyone to be better off?

Two months ago, a gunman in Connecticut mowed down 27 people: 20 small children, six teachers and his mother. This happened three days after a gunman shot up a mall in Oregon and in the same year as fatal mass shootings

in Minneapolis, Tulsa, a Sikh temple, the midnight showing of a movie, a coffee bar in Seattle and a Halloween party on a college campus. Twenty-seven, two, six, three, six, 12, six, two. That’s a body count of 64. It’s time to ask again: How do we work together?

It’s time that our political system answers that question and learn to live within the times — not expect the times to live with them.

Our age is being reshaped by mass communication and mass communication is where change will begin. I loved that after every presidential debate, Facebook turned into a political forum for ideas and opinions on the candidates’ performances.

That shows me there is hope, that people are interested. All of you who put up statuses that told me to keep my politics to myself can get lost. We need discussion.

That’s how we will begin to make a difference.

Next time you read about something you think ought to be recognized and changed, I want to hear about it. My friend at Northwestern University wants to hear about it. The Herald wants to hear about it. Chances are, people you never would expect to care want to hear about it.

In the end, it’s simple. Whether or not we solve the issues of our time will be the ultimate reflection of whether or not we can learn to work together — you, me, our congressmen, our professors, the deans, our new president — “we” is all of us.

The Justice Department announced last week that it was planning to sue Standard & Poor’s, one of Wall Street’s largest rating agencies, for fraud — fudging ratings — during the collapse of the financial system in the late 2000s.

Ratings agencies make their money by rating things — crazy, I know. These “things” are financial instruments of all types, from the “simple” — corporate bonds, sovereign debt, loans — to the more complex -- bundles of loans, bundles of bundles of loans.

They also rate things that you probably never knew could — or needed — to be rated, like “deals” and life insurance.

Investors can put their money into each one of these instruments; a bank can hold a home loan, a hedge fund can hold a bundle of loans, and a private equity firm can put their money into a buyout. Each one comes with a certain amount of risk and reward.

Take a mortgage for example: the reward is the monthly payment of the price of the house, and the risk is that the homeowner will not be able to pay and have to default on the loan.

Ratings agencies provide a sort of standardized gauge of this risk-reward payoff.

The safest investments — say, a treasury bill guaranteed by the United States government — have little risk and little reward.

These investments are given high ratings. A similar loan made by the Greek government, however, has a much greater risk — because Athens could totally fall, like, tomorrow — and is given a lower rating, differentiating it as a riskier investment.

But these ratings agencies deal with an inherent conflict of interest in their business. Wall Street generally relies on the “Big Three” ratings agencies to rate these financial instruments: Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch. Typically, higher-rated investments draw more investors as they provide a safer source of income. Now, let’s say a bank puts together an investment package with some risky assets and some safer ones.

They go to each agency and receive an “A” rating from S&P, a “B” from Moody’s, and a “C” from Fitch. The next time that bank needs an investment package rated, they’ll only take it to S&P because they know they will give it a higher rating than the other two firms.

This competition between firms creates an incentive for each firm to rate an investment higher than it really should be rated. If Moody’s rates the package an “A” instead of a “B,” the bank could sell it to more clients and make more money. Since the ratings agencies make money off how many of these instruments they rate, it makes sense for them to draw in more business by fudging their ratings a bit.

Essentially, Standard & Poor’s made them believe their money was far safer than it really was, rather than warning investors of how risky their assets were. Recent reports point out that Standard & Poor’s was only trying to “catch up” to the artificially-high ratings Moody’s gave out at the same time.

Though the ratings agencies have taken the brunt of the fallout for their mishandling of this competition, the real problem here is everyone’s favorite — people still say this, right? — Johnny-come-lately: the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC).

The SEC deemed both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s as “nationally recognized statistical rating organizations” — basically saying that their ratings were trustworthy enough that pension funds and other large investment firms could depend on them.

To oversimplify, everyone was wrong — but with no major repercussions coming out of any of these cases, the general consensus seems to be “Yeah, we messed up ... but so did you, so why bother?” Hurray accountability!

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

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

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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Doonesbury

Crossword

by

Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur

Tuesday’s Solution

Married to the Sea

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Maneuvering in the snow-turned-slush. Ew.

Late Night at the Daily

Tuesday’s Solution

Nina: “We’re a professional newspaper with professional people.”

Want more late-night laughs?

Follow us on Twitter at @LateNiteAtDaily

Please recycle this Daily.

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Wiley

The Tufts Daily

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Jumbos beaten badly by Lord Jeffs, cling to playoff hopes ICE HOCKEY

continued from back

to eliminate the Jumbos’ three goal advantage.

Tufts showed a resilience it has lacked in recent games, scoring just 28 seconds later. The response came in the form of a goal from Gallegos, and his score gave the Jumbos the lead for good, as White went on to notch his third of the night to end the contest, 6-4.

But the Jumbos were still in dire need of points after the win over the Continentals and stumbled in a Monday matchup against the Amherst Lord Jeffs. Back home at Valley Forum II in a game that was postponed from Saturday, Tufts couldn’t maintain its momentum, falling to Amherst 6-1.

Once again the Jumbos struck first, this time on sophomore forward William Sellers’ first career goal.

Phillips was able to make 13 saves that

he called “routine,” and the Jumbos went in to the locker room with a 1-0 lead after the first period.

The Amherst barrage, however, quickly followed, as the Lord Jeffs put up three goals in the second period to take a commanding lead. From there on it was all Lord Jeffs, as junior Andrew Kurlandski went on to net two goals for the visiting team in a 6-1 rout of the Jumbos.

“To begin with, we got a little bit unlucky,” Gallegos said. “The three back-to-back-to-back were lucky goals for them. One was a fluke; it bounced off of the glass right in front of our net for an easy finish. The others were bang-bang right off of faceoffs. However, we didn’t respond like we should have—we let it get out of hand.”

Despite this loss, Tufts still has an opportunity to sneak into the final playoff spot if it handles its business

and receives some help from other teams in the conference.

“Right now we are three points out of the playoffs behind [Conn.

College,]” Phillips said. “So really our mentality is do-or-die. We need to go in next weekend and we need to come away with those points. We need to come out and see our best weekend of hockey to get those four points and come away with the last playoff spot.”

The task is certainly no easy one, however, as Tufts will first face national No. 4 Bowdoin College, currently sitting in first place in the NESCAC. After that Friday-night matchup in Maine, Tufts will travel across the state to Colby College for its last regular season game on Saturday. The team must win at least one game to have any chance of making the playoffs, setting up a dramatic finish to a roller-coaster season for the Jumbos.

Relay team locks up third seed at Div. III Championships MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD continued from back

Senior Andre Figueroa’s performance made up the second half of the Jumbos’ one-two finish in the weight throw with his toss of 52 feet 10 inches, an improvement of almost five feet from his performance at the Tufts Stampede back on Feb. 2.

In the pole vault, junior Trevor Rothaus increased his qualifying height from 4.25 meters to 4.30 meters, finishing third place overall just ahead of former NESCAC champion Trent Wiseman of Colby.

Senior Sam Haney needed a similar showing in the mile at the Challenge in order to qualify for the postseason, and pulled it off with a time of 4:19.54— third place among Div. III runners. He

is looking to build on a remarkable fall season in which he became the first Tufts cross country runner in over a decade to win the Eastern College Athletic Conference championship.

The Jumbos assembled its first distance medley relay team of the season prior to the meet, a group of athletes that had little time to develop any sort of race chemistry.

Despite this being their first attempt at the event this season, the Jumbos performed extremely well, establishing themselves already as a foursome to be feared in the upcoming championships.

The squad, comprised of junior Max Levitin, sophomore Alex Schifter, senior Tyler Andrews and freshman Veer Bhalla, was looking to secure as high a seed as possible for the Div. III

New England Championships. Their time of 10:54.80 was good enough for third, a strong finish to an impressive day on the track.

“I felt pretty good,” Levitin said.

“The [relay] ran almost 30 seconds faster than it was seeded to get a good time for the Div. III New England’s next weekend.”

Those who qualified at the Cupid Challenge or at earlier meets will compete next at the Div. III New England Championships this Friday and Saturday at Bates College.

“Even though we didn’t have close to a full squad today, we had great energy that we will bring into championship season,” Levitin said. “[ We had] some big marks today and only room to improve.”

Jumbos clean up in field events, set sights on Div. III Championships WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD continued from back

Freshman Emily Smithwick placed first in the pole vault, clearing the bar at 10 feet 11 3/4 inches, while classmate Julia Rogers, a sophomore, placed fourth in the event with a vault of 9 feet and one fourth of an inch. Senior Ronke Oyekunle won the weight throw with a distance of 52 feet 10 and three-fourths inches, and followed that up with a win in shot put, with a throw of 42 feet 2 inches.

On the track, senior Samantha Bissonnette ran an impressive race in the 400-meter dash, placing second with a time of 1:00.17. Sophomore Lauren Gormer secured a second place finish in the 600 with a time of 1:39.66. And in the distance events, senior Toby Crispin crossed the finish line in a season-best time of 5:06.61 in the mile.

With the regular season at its end, these next few days leading up to championship season are vital for those that will be competing further.

The New England Div. III Championships will take place at the University of Southern Maine on Feb. 15 and 16. Tufts finished fourth out of 22 teams last year and would like to improve upon that by taking home a victory this year.

“This week leading into championships, we have to really focus on everything we do off the track,” Peterson said.

“Our fitness is where it is at this point, so sleeping enough and eating right are all we can really control.”

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Oliver Porter / The Tufts Daily

The Jumbos secured four event wins on Monday night in a meet postponed by the storm.

Jason Schneiderman | Stoppage Time

A Blue Manchester

S

omething is rotten in the east side of Manchester. A season marked by a dismal early Champion’s League campaign, which saw Manchester City win none of its six games, is turning equally sour in league play. And now, fingers are finally being pointed.

After a series of uninspired displays, it is almost hard to believe that nine months ago Manchester City were celebrating their first Premier League title in 44 years. The reigning EPL champions are reeling after back-to-back draws and an embarrassing 3-1 defeat at the hands of newly promoted and 15th place Southampton, the final one a culmination of a stretch that all but ended City’s hopes of retaining the title.

The squad that manager Roberto Mancini has sent out the past few weeks has been merely a shell of their title-winning team of a year ago. Gone are David Silva’s moments of sheer brilliance—the Spaniard is no longer living up to his nickname, “Merlin.”

Gone are Yaya Toure’s marauding runs through the midfield, with a lack of depth and consistency in the defensive midfield forcing him to stay back. Gone is captain Vincent Kompany’s steadfast and mistake-free presence in central defense, a result of both poor form and injury.

Even Sergio Agthe, the man who delivered the title-winning goal, along with 29 others a season ago, has been less than clinical in front of net, scoring only 11 so far this season.

Much of the team has been similarly disappointing, which begs the question: why? Why is a team formed of so many world-class players performing at such a disappointing level just one season after achieving a domestic title? And how could a squad with as much supposed quality as City be bossed around the pitch for the better of 90 minutes by a team like Southampton? These are the questions that demanding owners will soon be asking Mancini, and his status as manager sure to be reevaluated when the season is over.

True, many of his players have not been playing to their standards of a year ago, but such a collective change is disturbing, especially since Mancini’s job is to get the very best out of his team. Watching the game on Saturday, the hunger that brought City its title a season ago is, simply stated, no longer there. Southampton players won nearly every 50-50 ball, looking faster, stronger and playing harder. They wanted it more.

Complacency was always to a risk for a team so new to winning. However content some players may have been with their first title, the Manchester City owners, who have invested more than $1 billion dollars since their takeover in 2008, did not spend such immense sums of money for a single Premier League title. They invested their money expecting continued and consistent excellence for decades, and to be successful, these same expectations must be passed on to the players.

With the title almost assuredly out of reach (barring an epic collapse from cross-town rivals Manchester United who currently hold a 12-point lead over City), the final 12 games of the season will be key factors in determining in what direction the club will head for the future.

A highly successful end to the season, including a positive result over United when they play in two months, may be enough for Mancini to keep his position with the club. If he can somehow kindle the fire from a season ago, he and the team may stand a chance.

However, if the downward spiral continues, and Manchester City finish outside the top two or three, I would be shocked to ever again see the well-dressed Italian walk another sideline as City manager.

Jason Schneiderman is a sophomore who is majoring in quantitative economics and computer science. He can be reached at Jason.Schneiderman@tufts.edu.

Sports

12

tuftsdaily.com

Men’s Ice Hockey

Jumbos end NESCAC point drought with win over Hamilton, fall to Lord Jeffs’ following night Tufts unable to answer Amherst’s offensive onslaught with one week left in regular season by

Alex Schroeder

Daily Editorial Board

At the beginning of the season, the Tufts’ ice hockey team had its eyes set on not only ICE HOCKEY (7-13-2, 2-12-2 NESCAC) at New London, Ct., Friday

Hamilton 0 0 4 — 4 Tufts 3 0 3 — 6 at Valley Forum II, Saturday Amherst Tufts

0 3 3 1 0 0

— 6 — 1

making the NESCAC tournament but on hosting a firstround game for the second straight year.

But now, with one week of regular-season play left, even a spot in the conference tournament is in jeopardy for a Jumbos side currently in last place in the NESCAC. Despite a split this past weekend — a win against Hamilton and a loss to Amherst — Tufts owns a conference record of 2-12-2, three points out of the eighth and final playoff spot.

Coming into the weekend, the Jumbos had gone 12 straight conference games without a win, and Winter Storm Nemo

threw a wrench in the team’s plans to break the trend, as their Friday night home match against Hamilton was postponed.

The weather forced them to travel to New London, Conn. on Sunday for a neutral rink match at the home of Conn. College.

And even after having to travel just under two hours and play a game that was meant to be a break from a road-heavy 2013, Tufts still took care of business, winning 6-4.

“Obviously there was a lot of adversity coming into that game with the snow storm and having to travel to Conn.

College,” junior goaltender Brian Phillips said. “We did a good job handling that adversity, coming into the game being able to take the lead early. It gave us momentum and life on the bench. I think we found success with the early lead we built up.”

It was a quick start that spurred the Jumbos, as they went ahead 3-0 by the end of the first period. Sophomore forwards Tyler Voigt and Andrew White and junior forward Tim Mitropoulos led the Jumbos’ attack with one goal apiece in the first, and the whole offense came alive as 11 players earned points for the team.

“I think we came out really hard in the first period,” junior forward Kyle Gallegos said.

Zhuangchen Zhou / The Tufts Daily

Sophomore Andrew White is second on the team with nine goals for Tufts and added three this weekend against Hamilton on Friday night. The Jumbos head into the final weekend of NESCAC play with a playoff spot on the line.

“Everyone’s feet were moving, and we were really determined to get the win.”

Most impressive was White, who finished with a hat trick in another strong performance from the sophomore, who is tied for second on the team with nine goals.

Men’s Track and Field

Men’s track takes two event wins in home finale

by Sam

Gold

The Tufts men’s track and field team on Monday hosted its annual Cupid Challenge, the team’s final home meet of the season and its last opportunity to qualify for certain championship meets later on.

With a number of athletes having missed earlier chances to do so because of injury or lackluster performances, Monday night was a final chance to extend their seasons.

Junior Graham Beutler needed a stellar performance to qualify for the championship season after returning from a bout of mononucleosis.

His time of 22.65 seconds in the 200-meter dash was just that, bringing him mere milliseconds ahead of Hillsdale College freshman Alexander Mexicotte.

“It’s great to finally be back healthy and racing,” Beutler, who holds the Tufts record in the 200, said. “It was tough on everyone having the meet postponed several times, but I think we really handled it well as a team.”

Senior tri-captain Curtis Yancy claimed the second of those victories with his monster heave of 61 feet 8 1/2 inches in the weight throw, his best throw of the season by more than three feet. Not only was it the most impresDaily Editorial Board

sive throw of Yancy’s career, but it also tied a 62-year old school record set by Tom Bane in 1951.

Though he had already qualified for the postseason and was ranked 15th in the nation prior to the Cupid Challenge, Yancy’s season personal best

moved him further up the rankings to sixth. The victory puts him in prime position to compete for a regional or conference title heading into championship season, if not a national title.

see MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD, page 11

Oliver Porter / The Tufts Daily

The men’s track and field team closed out their season with a strong finish at home that saw a number of Jumbos qualify for the postseason in their last chance to do so.

“Andrew has been one of our best offensive contributors this whole year,” Phillips said.

The Hamilton game is obviously a reflection of that. His breakout performance was a huge boost for the team.”

While Tufts kept it scoreless in the second period and held

their three-goal advantage all the way until the beginning of the third, Hamilton fought back, bringing back memories of countless late-game collapses this year for Tufts. Hamilton needed just over eight minutes see ICE HOCKEY, page 11

Women’s Track and Field

Jumbos impress at home in regular season finale

by

Alex Connors

Contributing Writer

For the second straight weekend the Jumbos competed at home in the friendly confines of the Gantcher Center, this time hosting 14 schools from all over New England for the Tufts Cupid Challenge.

The meet, twice rescheduled due to Winter Storm Nemo, took place on Monday night.

“This past weekend really tested us all on how well we can cope with situations that are out of our control” junior Laura Peterson said.

“There are always things we can’t control about our meets: From the time of our events, to our competition, to the location of the meet. I think we all handled the change well, though,” she said. “We came into the meet with the right mindset.”

With the New England Div. III Championships less than a week away, there was no team scoring at the meet, meaning the focus was solely on individual performances, giving those who had not achieved the qualification requirements one last chance. Some athletes that have already qualified for the Championships did not compete, but still found ways to be a positive influence for the team.

“Girls who didn’t compete did a fantastic job of supporting teammates and helping to keep the meet running smoothly,” Peterson said.

The Jumbos who did compete Monday night had nine top-three finishes among the 17 events they competed in, including four event wins.

The most successful event of the night for the Jumbos was the 3000-meter dash.

Sophomore Meghan Gillis, freshman Alexandra Kiesling, sophomore Caroline KimballKatz and freshman Michelle de Mars took the top 4 spots, dominating the rest of the field with times of 10:48, 10:55, 10:56 and 10:59, respectively.

“Personally, it was a four second [personal record], and I’m pleased with how I did” Gillis said. “I feel like having the meet at home always gives us a confidence that helps us perform better and more like a team. I felt so much support last night during the race because I could hear our team cheering the entire time.”

The three other first-place finishes for the Jumbos came in field events, where they enjoyed their usual success even with the absence of senior standout thrower Sabienne Brutus.

see WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD, page 11