Spring 2011 - Issue 2

TUFTS OBSERVER february 28, 2011

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volume cxxIi / issue 2

inside the Jumbos: learn your rights (page 2)

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Getting spicy in the kitchen (page 10)

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A poem from a professor (page 26)

featured articles

feature

Fight for our rights: learn what rights Tufts students have on campus

news

Tufts students protest against toxic waste in Salem

off campus

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24

Preview of Boston’s new and improved planetarium

opinons

2 10

Conjure the world’s most exciting tastes in your kitchen at Tufts

poetry & prose

A lone cross on the side of a hill

The Observer has been Tufts’ publication of record since 1895. Our dedication to in-depth reporting, journalistic innovation and honest dialogue has remained intact for over a century. Today, we offer insightful news analysis, cogent and diverse opinion pieces, creative writing and lively reviews of current arts, entertainment, and culture. Through poignant writing and artistic elegance, we aim to entertain, inform, and above all challenge the Tufts community to effect positive change.

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O Editors

Contents

February 28, 2011 Volume CXXII, Issue 2 Tufts Observer, Since 1895 Tufts’ Student Magazine www.TuftsObserver.org

editor-in-chief Joshua Aschheim managing editor Katie Boland

production director Avery Matera production designer David Schwartz art director Alyce Currier

photography director Louise Blavet section editors Eric Archibald Micah Hauser Eliza Mills Cara Paley Caitlin Schwartz Ariana Siegel Ryan Stolp Megan Wasson

associate section editors Anna Burgess Kyle Carnes lead copy editor Isobel Redelmeier lead artist Ruth Tam web editor Charlotte Burger new media editor Samantha Carle business manager Jason Clain staff writers Melis Aker Neil Aronson Shir Livne Molly Mirhashem staff artists Suzi Grossman Natasha Jessen-Peterson Becky Plante

2 feature Knowledge is Power, by Kyle Carnes 5 news Presidential Perceptions: Tufts Students Weigh in on Obama, by Lauren Jayson 6 news The Salem Coal Plant Trial, by Sabrina Ghaus 8 news Tipping the Scale: Health Hype on Campus, by Laura Moreno 9 news Ask the Expert, by Ariana Siegel 10 opinions Spice Up Your Life, by Luke Pyenson inset 13 photo Lebanon - Shatila Refugee Camp, by Sean Smith 17 tufts Destroying Reputations: Easy as ACB, by Anna Burgess beans 18 spilt The Bathroom Reviewer: Whatcha been Eaton?!?, by Daniel Heller and Alison Lisnow life 20 campus Campus Colloquial: Taking a Closer Look at the Words We Use, by Nicola Pardy campus 21 off Up, Up, and Away, by Joshua Aschheim 21 humor bunchofgirls, by Alyce Currier & chuck 24 petey Big League, by Ryan Stolp & prose 26 poetry New Laws Regarding the Conversation of Matter and Energy, by Mark Gosztyla & prose 27 poetry On Immortality, by Eric Sinski 28 campus Police Blotter, by Ryan Stolp

staff photographer Amy Shipp editor emeritus Kathryn Christiansen

Contributors Sabrina Ghaus Mark Gosztyla Daniel Heller Lauren Jayson Alison Lisnow Lauren Moreno

Since

Nicola Pardy Luke Pyenson Eric Sinski Sean Smith

Cover by Alyce Currier

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National

Presidential Perceptions

Tufts Students Weigh in on Obama

hree years ago, millions packed up blankets and coolers of food and gathered at the National Mall to watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Signs and banners spoke to the hope for change, celebrating the political progress Americans saw in Obama’s election.

But substantial change didn’t come immediately. At first, some dissatisfied citizens attributed the lack of much-awaited progress to the obstacles of doing “damage control” before more weighty change could be pursued. Now, many believe that significant change is still a foreign concept.

Hopes for a functional health care system, strong economy, and powerful nation are becoming farther and farther from reach.

With the approach of the 2012 election, Obama’s current standings are a source of much speculation. Tracing the trajectory of the national mood, popularity ratings have moved all over the charts.

Despite downward spirals in his ratings, Obama has recently become more popular among Americans. Though his policies remain in question, the president himself has moved into a far more positive light.

Based on a survey conducted by Gallup Daily, President Obama’s approval rating is now at 48%. While low in terms of the imminent election, ratings have been on the rise since hitting some low points during the summer of 2010, with numbers lingering around 41-43%.

Still, the question remains: in the context of his shaky, though on the rise, ratings, do Americans—and more specifically Tufts students— consider Obama’s term a success?

Jonathan Danzig, Editor in Chief of Tufts’ conservative political publication The Primary Source, offers a two-pronged response.

Danzig said that while June ‘09

Obama has transformed promises into hard legislation, his initiatives have yet to manifest in tangible change.

“His campaign has been successful in the sense that much of the legislation he has wanted passed has gotten passed,” Danzig said. “But [it’s been] unsuccessful in that the economy is still lagging, the federal budget continues to grow, and there does not appear to be any longt e r m s olut ion of the deficit.”

Anna Burgess

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by Lauren Jayson

Despite certainty about his policies, many Tufts students place continued support and optimism in Obama’s ability to lead the country through crisis.

Tufts freshman Rachel Bloom remains sympathetic to the President’s cause. “I think the country was looking for a hero to fix the nation’s problems. The way congress is structured though, it would be im-

Obama’s Popularity Ratings

48%

Approve

43%

Disapprove Dec. ‘09

possible for anyone, left or right, to solve everything in four years.”

Freshman Paul Pemberton maintains high hopes that Obama will emerge victorious from the 2012 election.

“The Republicans don’t have anyone who can beat him, but I think that it’s going to be a closer election than people are anticipating. What he does to sort out what’s going on in Egypt is going to define how people see him,” he said.

The current crisis in Egypt, coupled with healthcare and the economy, are just some of what are considered the ‘defining factors’ of Obama’s presidency.

Unlike his Tufts’ peers, Danzig is not as optimistic about Obama’s chances. “If the 2010 elections are any indicators, he will have a tough path to reelection in 2012,” he said. “While he has the advantage of incumbency, the Republican nominee will have the advantage of running against what are very unpopular policies.”

According to Democratic operative Eric Berman, the 2012 election will see Obama struggle to tie down a campaign strategy—one he fears might compromise the principles that slid him to number one in the first place.

“What is harmful to him is the opportunity cost of having failed to deliver on the key issue facing his presidency—jobs and the economy—and the appearance of not even caring about it,” said Berman. As a result, I fear he’ll overcompensate and position himself not as a moderate but as a Republican-ite.”

Still, hard facts show that following trends of hesitancy and mistrust, Americans are regaining their former optimism.

As pundits and politicians speculate on the 2012 election, they look to the people’s evolving perspective on the government’s role in their lives, America’s role in the world, and the truth of the notion that Feb. ‘11 change takes time. O

July ‘10

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local

The Salem Coal Plant Trial

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by sabrina ghaus

little over 20 miles from Tufts University lies the city of Salem, where the presence of the Salem Harbor Coal Plant, one of the largest coal plants in the state of Massachusetts, is just another fact of life. So is the black powdery film that is reported to cover windows of houses and cars nearby. And so is the highest rate of cancer in the state.

Salem Harbor Coal Plant is one of Massachusetts’ ‘filthy five’ , that is, one of the five dirtiest coal plants in the state.

Built in 1952, Salem Harbor is exempt from numerous environmental regulations required of more modern plants, as are the rest of the filthy five, all built before 1977.

The plant contains one 38-year-old oil burner and three coal burners, two of which are 47 years old, and the third of which has been in use for 54 years. According to preliminary data from the EPA, in 2010 the Salem Harbor plant emitted 5,6161.2 tons of sulfur dioxide, 1,421,294 tons of carbon dioxide, and 1,224.4 tons of nitrous oxides,

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released into the air breathed by over two million people within a 30-mile radius.

A Harvard University study concluded that pollutants emitted by Salem Harbor cause 30 premature deaths annually, and figures published by HealthLink, an environmental and public health nonprofit, total 2010 healthcare costs at approximately $150 million.

Here’s where Tufts enters the scene.

Students for a Just and Stable Future (SJSF), a national environmental awareness organization with an active branch on campus, is dedicated to combating the lethal effects of toxic waste. In the Massachusetts chapter students aim to completely eliminate coal burning in the state, working through legislative and educational venues. In coordination with other SJSF Boston chapters and environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, Tufts SJSF have been busily advocating for a shutdown of this toxic plant.

In late 2010, student efforts were finally rewarded. Salem Harbor announced plans to close down the coal plant with-

in five years, just days after a protest organized by SJSF in the local town. That day, over 50 SJSF members from Tufts and other Boston area schools rode bikes from Davis Square to protest the noxious consequences of the Salem plant, waving Quit Coal flags as residents of local towns cheered them on.

Unseen Consequences Although epidemiologists have detected increased cancer rates, asthma, heart attacks, and other serious health consequences of toxic waste, a large proportion of local residents remained skeptical of efforts to shut down the coal plants.

In an April 2010 Boston Globe article, Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll stated that much of Salem’s economy benefits from the coal plant, which employs 145 Salem residents and pays the city millions of dollars in property taxes.

As recently as 2008, the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration

local (OSHA) cited Salem Harbor with 10 serious violations, all of which remained untouched.

Unsafe work conditions spawned the deaths of three workers in a steam explosion in 2007.

But the repercussions of the dubious actions of Salem Harbor and numerous other coal plants in Eastern Massachusetts are not only felt locally.

Much of the coal burned by Salem Harbor, Mount Tom, and Brayton Point, the three largest coal plants in Massachusetts, is shipped overseas from mines in Colombia.

Salem Harbor specifically obtains coal from El Cerrejon, the world’s largest open-pit mine, jointly owned by Anglo American, BHB Billiton, and Xstrata and located in rural, indigenous Colombia.

According to Aviva Chomsky, a professor of history and coordinator of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean studies at Salem State College, numerous criticisms surround the conduct of El Cerrejon mine. Local policies infringe on citizens rights, seen especially in the use of paramilitaries to terrorize residents. The mine’s expansionist agenda has also afflicted communities with extreme poverty. After being forced off their land for mine expansion purposes, residents of the resettled village of Tamaquito, have no access to electricity, running water, or educational resources. What used to be a productive society has become listless and isolated, surrounded by property bought by the owners of El Cerrejon, where residents are not allowed to plant crops or hunt.

Looking Ahead The closing of Salem Harbor would be a battle won for students of SJSF, still waging war against the coal plant and its lethal effects in the community. The group is attempting to close down all of the filthy five coal plants in Massachusetts—a lofty goal for a student organization—through Massachusetts state legislation. Arlen Weiner, the Campus coordinator for Tufts SJSF chapter, voiced her support for student efforts.

“A lot of people just don’t think it’s possible, and a lot of people in the [environmental] movement understand that. But we’re at

least trying to get the conversation going, put the topic on the table, make people more aware,” Weiner said. “At least for me, I feel that wouldn’t necessarily feel like we failed if the bills don’t get passed as long as people are talking about [the issue].”

As the new legislative session begins, SJSF will be bringing its environmentalist agenda to the Massachusetts state assembly.

A previous bill drafted by SJSF members, titled An Act to Create a Repower Massachusetts Emergency Task Force, died in committee. Now, however, SJSF has two more bills waiting to be voted on: An Act to Eliminate Coal Burning and Use by 2015, and another, essentially the same but with a 2020 deadline.

The SJSF campaign includes technically illegal sleep-outs in Boston Common, an attempt to raise awareness and protest in favor of environmental legislation. The Trinity Lutheran church around the corner from the State House, however, has opened its doors to SJSF students who would rather avoid citations from police officers.

“People who aren’t comfortable with sleeping outside because the police will come around and give citations, can sleep in the church,” Weiner explained. “I don’t think [our activism] scares people off.”

Four protests to raise awareness about the adverse effects of coal are set to take place this spring in Boston, in addition to one in Washington, DC. All of the protests are set to culminate on Earth Day. SJSF members will be afforded training for lobbying, climate science, and coordination of the march on coal. More collaboration with national environmental action groups is expected in the spring. O FEBRUARY 28, 2011

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campus

iT ppi ng th e S c a l e Health Hype on Campus

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by laura moreno

ast fall semester, the rising health consciousness of the past decade took hold at Tufts University. A small group of Tufts graduate and undergraduate students joined forces to create the Balance Your Life health campaign, working to raise awareness about health issues and provide tips that students can apply to their daily college routines.

Kate Sweeney, a graduate student at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy and a founder of the campaign, plays an especially active role in engendering health consciousness on campus.

After noticing an information gap within Tufts health-centered resources, she felt inspired to take action.

“Since there wasn’t a dietitian employed at Health Services, there was a gap for students to get dietary information,” Sweeney said. “To breech this gap, we created a communication-based campaign.”

Though still not officially recognized as a Tufts club, the group meets on a weekly basis to brainstorm and promote health campaigns.

A program called The Gym Comes to You, allows students to participate in free fitness classes such as Kickboxing or Pilates, taking place in different dorms around campus.

From the number of students showing up to exercise their homew o r k strained muscles, the initiative has proven successful. Evaluations show that many student partici8

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pants are motivated to continue working out even after free classes end.

“We can’t keep providing these free fitness classes through The Gym Comes to You,” Sweeney said. “Our goal is to educatestudents about healthy options, so that they know what foods to choose over others and why those foods are beneficial to their health.”

Balance Your Life also boasts a savvy, informative Facebook page, run and updated by sophomore Charlotte Burger. The group maintains a website and a blog, which offer an array of health tips and information specifically targeted to Tufts students.

They have also produced a series of informational pamphlets for those interested in learning more about nutrition.

Pamphlets are provided in Tufts dorms after each fitness class and at the gym.

“We think that people who are going to the gym are more interested in staying healthy, but we realize that just because people exercise, it doesn’t mean they are eating healthfully,” Sweeney said. “So it seemed like a good place to start.”

Along with nutritional pamphlets, fun and informative posters have been posted on the walls of Carmichael and Dewick-MacPhie dining halls.

While both dining halls offer healthy options, it’s all-too-easy to wander over to the more indulgent options. But Balance Your Life intends to guide students in the right direction.

“There are great options in the dining halls, but there are also distractions,” said Sweeney. “Our goal is to stir students away from the unhealthy distractions, such as French fries and pizza.”

Group members recognize that finals week in particular can be a stressful time for Tufts students. Unfortunately, students tend to turn to mounds of junk

food and sugar-heavy coffee to survive it all. During last semester’s final exams, Balance Your Life tried to temper sugary cravings with some healthier choices. Campaign members distributed healthy snacks such as apple crisps and 100-calorie packs of pretzels to students in different dorms.

What’s more, each snack-pack came equipped with useful health tips for students.

One of the fun facts alerted sleepdeprived students that the effects of staying awake for more than 24 hours mirror the effects of drunkenness.

Another exciting project currently underway is a series of healthy cooking lessons, planned to take place in the basement of Health Services. Campaign members will teach students easy, inexpensive recipes that can be made on-campus as nutritional alternatives to the pizzaand-Easy-Mac college diet. As an added bonus, cooking lessons will be themed.

Lesson one is set to be the ubiquitously popular category of Italian food.

The campaign is also in the process of organizing a “girls only” and a “boys only” gym event, during which female and male students will receive exercise advice from an expert trainer separately.

Since it’s promising start,the Balance Your Life campaign has been successfully guiding students toward leading healthier lives. But, at the end of the day, it is up to students to incorporate these new healthy diet and exercise tips into the fabric of their college routines.

“We are doing everything we can to make it easy to live a healthy lifestyle,” said Sweeney, “but it is up to the students to make our campaign sustainable.” O

campus

Ask the Expert The Observer gets health tips from Nutrition Professor Kelly Kane

th ru

m ta

by Ariana siegel Observer: What’s your favorite nutrition tip?

Kelly Kane: [Get] sleep! Especially in your age range, there’s been a lot more data now that suggests people overeat when they don’t sleep. People don’t think sleep and nutrition go hand in hand, but they do. It’s completely overlooked as a health factor. We’ve all experienced that; we’re tired or we’re thirsty so we eat. Those urges trigger the same reactions.

If you can take care of the sleep end, that will start to take care of the nutrition end too.

O: What is the nutrition rule people most often forget? Is there any aspect of the student or American diet that gets left out?

K: Modern diets tend to concentrate on carbohydrates, fat, and protein. We spend a lot of time trying to avoid fat or carbohydrates, so at a particular time you might be trying to watch your carbohydrates or fat intake, but you don’t look at protein.

So [watching protein intake] tends not to be in fad or in vogue, but it helps with getting your macronutrients. If you’re not getting enough protein--yogurt, beans, meat--you do tend to overeat carbohydrates and junk food.

O: You’ve mentioned problems with sleep and protein. Are there any other particularly unhealthy aspects of a student lifestyle?

K: Staying well hydrated is really important as well. When you’re tired or thirsty, you tend to want to eat, and a lot of us don’t recognize our thirst for what it is. Water is the ideal beverage for proper hydration. The 2010 [nutrition] guidelines ...are recommending more fluid and water intake as opposed to sugar beverages, [which are a] huge source of calories.

O: Many students drink a lot of coffee, does that help or harm hydration?

K: There’s a conception that you lose water when you have coffee because... caffeine dehydrates you, but that’s actually a myth. I’m not suggesting that you use caffeinated beverages as a main source of intake, but you don’t have to drink water to make up for caffeine.

“

It’s really hard to stay healthy at school. There are sweets everywhere, I don’t get sleep, I don’t have time to work out. It just sucks.

— Anika Huq, Sophomore

Walking

everywhere helps, everywhere I walk takes 20 minutes up a hill. And I have rehearsal for theater which doesn’t leave me much time to eat and makes me move.

— lily zahn, senior

”

O: What would you recommend students do to improve their nutritional intake?

K: There are a lot of clichés. There’s no magical, ‘Oh, I’ve never heard that piece of information before’ tip that will change your life. One rule to keep in mind is, the more colorful your plate is, the better you’re doing. I tend to think for [the college] population, you come to school and you know what you like or don’t like, but then [at collete] you get exposed to foods that you might not have opted to eat. So we should encourage [consuming] variety. Be brave and try some interesting foods. Try something you’ve never seen or heard before, [you] may have [found] a new favorite.

O: Michelle Obama’s “Let’s move” campaign to reduce U.S. child obesity just celebrated it’s one year anniversary. What’s your opinion of the program so far?

K: It’s funny how controversial it’s become in this contentious political environment.

I don’t understand how could it be met with any resistance; it’s such an admirable goal, and clearly will have benefits to [the] whole population. But i’s being attacked by people on the opposing side. It’s interesting to see how, when [Michelle Obama] recommends watching what foods are available in the cafeteria, people say, ‘I’m going to bring in cookies.’ O

Tufts Talks:

What do you to stay healthy?

“

I try to work out five days a week and eat a balanced diet, but I know where the balance is between healthy and compulsive. It’s easier [to stay healthy] at college because the food is prepared for you and the gym is right there.

— sarah halloran, sophomore

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by Luke Pyenson

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he other day, someone I don't know very well walked into my room, immediately noticed the giant spice rack on my desk, and asked me if I collect spices. My initial thought was "That's a bizarre question, what kind of weirdo just collects spices?" I then turned toward my 36, alphabetically arranged, neatly labeled, spice-filled mason jars, singling out galangal root and kaffir lime leaves. and realized that even though I do more with spices than just collect them, I'm still that weirdo—regardless of how much more delicious my rice was with galangal root boiled in the water.

I don't want to launch into some spice sermon about how everybody should use egregiously esoteric ingredients like galangal root in their daily cooking, or sprinkle cardamom into their friends' Jim Beam while pregaming for Winter Bash or Spring Fling. My message is simple: exploring local spice markets and specialty foods stores will absolutely result in you eating bettertasting food. Here are some of my favorite spices, the stories of how we became acquainted, and some ideas for what to do with them:

CARDAMOM My dad’s dentist is in a neighborhood of Boston called Jamaica Plain. In this neighborhood there used to be a bakery called “Sweet Finnish” which specialized in, yes, Finnish baked goods. One day, my dad arrived home from an appointment with a warm brown paper bag issuing a sweet and exotic smell.

Inside were little Finnish rolls called pulla, flecked with cardamom seeds and topped with crunchy pearl sugar. This is how my relationship with cardamom began; I fell deeply in love after my first pulla. Shortly thereafter, I discovered the Indian rice pudding kheer, which is sweeter and silkier than most rice puddings because its made with condensed milk, and has a vaguely minty, peppery flavor going on—that’s the cardamom. I could bathe in it.

I began experimenting with cardamom in sheepish ways— i.e. putting it in my Swiss Miss—and quickly learned that I enjoyed a little bit of cardamom sprinkled in most anything.

Pancake batter. On top of sliced bananas drizzled with honey. As an ice cream flavor (called khulfi; Toscanini’s in Central Square has a good version). I started incorporating it more into masalas for curries, and into my coffee, as they do in the Middle East. I chewed the whole pods during class. This year, my housemate Quin got me into oatmeal; I instinctively reached for my ground cardamom the first time we made it together. His mastery of oats and my obsession with cardamom combined to make what is probably the best thing you can have for breakfast this winter.

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QUIN’S STEEL-CUT OATMEAL WITH CARDAMOM After trying this, I can’t imagine eating instant oatmeal again. Steel-cut oatmeal changed my life and it will change yours too if you give it a chance.

Serves 1 2 teaspoons butter 2/3 cup oats 2 2/3 cups water 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom A drip of honey, plus a little more to drizzle on top 1/2 teaspoon orange blossom water* (optional) Start the water boiling. In a small saucepan, brown the butter and toast the oatmeal for about three minutes, until it smells nutty and delicious. When the water has boiled, pour over oats and turn the heat up to high.

While oats are boiling, add salt, cardamom, and honey.

Stir well, and turn down to a simmer. Add in the orange blossom water if using. Cover and let simmer for 15-20 minutes. *Found at any Middle Eastern market, orWhole Foodstype place. It’s a distillation of orange blossom that tastes like flowers.

What’s Cooking CUMIN I spent last semester abroad in Morocco. I was expecting to be bombarded by spices, both ones I already loved and ones I hadn’t even tasted yet. This turned out, sadly, to not really be true.

But what I did encounter was a lot of cumin. Really, really, good cumin. The spicing for most Moroccan dishes relies heavily on cumin, which grows in Southern Morocco, and as the semester went on I realized its full potential. Most people know about and use cumin, and of course I’d been around it plenty in my day (I happen to have a friend who used to pour it on himself as deodorant), but I was never really that enthusiastic about it. Well, I guess cumin and I renewed our vows or something; I brought back bags and bags of it. I’ve been recreating my favorite Moroccan dishes at home this semester, and it’s the cumin that really makes me nostalgic. Dragging a hardboiled egg through tiny mounds of salt and cumin, I have a Proustian moment as I take a bite and remember some of my favorite dishes.

y e n

ZA’ALOUK (MOROCCAN-STYLE EGGPLANT) Serves 4 4 medium-sized eggplants Olive oil 3 cloves garlic, sliced ~1 cup canned tomatoes + juice (break up the tomatoes in your hands) ~1 teaspoon cumin A little saffron if you have it Salt to taste Over an open flame (at medium-high heat on your stovetop), blacken the eggplants on all sides until soft, the same way you might turn a red bell pepper into a roasted red pepper. This should take about 15 minutes per eggplant. When finished, put into a 400 degree oven on a baking sheet for about ten minutes, or until cooked through. Take them out, and let cool. When cool enough to handle, peel them, and mush up the insides in a bowl using your hands—this should be fun.

In a sauté pan, heat enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the sliced garlic, eggplant, and tomatoes, and stir a bit. Then add the cumin, salt, and saffron if using. Let the ingredients get to know each other for a bit—say ten minutes—over medium-high heat, and then serve. Best eaten using bread as a utensil— baguettes and round focaccias work best.

ALl photos by louise blavet

B’SSARA (MOROCCAN FAVA BEAN SOUP) Serves 6 4 cups dried, split fava beans (soaked at least 4 hours)* 4 cups water a little olive oil 4 cloves garlic, whole 1 tablespoon cumin 1 cup vegetable stock (you might want more)

In a large soup pot (a Dutch oven is even better, if you have one), heat enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the garlic and fava beans and sautee for 5 minutes. Then cover in the water, add the salt and cumin, and bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn it down to a simmer and leave it for 45 minutes or until the fava beans have totally broken down. This could take an hour, just be patient— it’s worth it. Once the fava beans have absorbed most of the water and it looks like there are mashed potatoes in your pot, put them into a blender with the vegetable stock and blend until smooth. You may need to do this in batches. When smooth (you can add more stock if you want it smoother), return to the pot. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of cumin and paprika. *You can usually find these at Middle Eastern or Indian markets. I get mine at a place called Al-Bara Market on Prospect St. in Cambridge just outside Inman Sq. It’s a short walk from the Central Square T station.

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what’s cooking SMOKEY LENTIL SALAD Serves 6 2 cups lentils (French green lentils are best) 4 cups water Olive oil Grainy Dijon mustard Pomegranate molasses* Pimentón de la vera or other smoked paprika salt In a saucepan, cover the lentils in roughly twice their volume of water. Bring to a boil, then when it reaches a boil, turn down to a simmer. Simmer, covered, for about 30-40 minutes, stirring intermittently, until cooked through but not mushy. Drain, and put in the fridge to chill.

For the vinaigrette dressing: Use about 1 part mustard to about 2.5 parts olive oil. So, on this scale, 1 teaspoon of mustard and 2.5 teaspoons of olive oil. Add about a half a teaspoon of pomegranate molasses. Slowly whisk the olive oil into the mustard until it emulsifies and then add the pomegranate molasses, still stirring.

When the lentils are chilled, combine in a mixing bowl with the vinaigrette, and shower liberally with smoked paprika, about a teaspoon or a teaspoon and a half. It’s best to use the ‘dulce’ variety. This is what makes the dish, don’t forget it. You also need to add salt, and don’t be light-handed. Serve on a bed of lettuce or eat it out of Tupperware the next day . *Pomegranate molasses is just really concentrated pomegranate juice. You can find it at any Middle Eastern market, or at Whole Foods or Dave’s Fresh Pasta.

PIMENTÓN DE LA VERA After my semester in Morocco, I traveled to Spain for a week. By this time, I was totally sick of Moroccan food and my first night in Seville, I wilded out, so to speak, and ordered lots of really heavy, homey, fatty Spanish dishes. I started with fried octopus served with homemade thick-cut fries and glistening aioli, sprinkled liberally with a magic red pixie dust that I later realized was pimentón de la vera: Spanish smoked paprika so special that it can only truly be grown in one small area of the country. As the week went on, I experienced this truly intoxicating spice in many ways, on many things, and came home with three different varieties: dulce (sweet), picante (spicy), and agridulce (in between). All three are favorites at my house, and a teaspoon of the agridulce variety in my housemate Clinton’s lentils the other week transported him into a state of rapturous delight. He now asks me for some almost every day. It’s possible to find pimentón de la vera at Christina’s in Inman Square, which also has every other spice you could possibly want. If they don’t have the real Spanish stuff (though they should) any smoked paprika will work. O 12

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SHATILA National

’Ali, age seven, spends an evening on the roof.

I had been living in the camp for maybe a month and had my computer out to show ’Ali and his father photos of Jerusalem. We sat on the floor of the only furnished room; most of the house still miscellaneous piles of dirt as ’Ali’s father incrementally built it. Flicking quickly through images of Bethlehem, protests outside Gaza, and the desert, ’Ali stopped at a picture of a sunrise above the Dome of the Rock.

He pointed at the gold-topped mosque and looked to his father.

“Dad, where is this?”

“Jerusalem, ’Ali.” “Dad, can we go there?” ’Ali’s father had grown up in the camp and fled during the 1982 massacre, only to enter the War of the Camps three years later at age 15. He’d fought in southern Lebanon, seen the land his map would never call Israel, and sat now less than three hours’ drive from his parent’s childhood home in Palestine. ’Ali’s father had never been there. His parents had never been back. But then neither has anyone who lives in Shatila, a refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut. ’Ali’s father stared blankly for a moment then said, la ’ali. maa feena. No ’Ali. We can’t.

Chelsea Grayson Market in the Japanese Village

National

Shatila was established in 1949, one of then-fourteen refugee camps created to accommodate Palestinians fleeing their homeland in the wake of Israel’s statehood. Of 800,000 who sought refuge in neighboring Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon after 1948, their descendents number around 400,000 in Lebanon today. But after 62 years, Palestinians in Lebanon are still not welcome. Forbidden to own property outside the camps, without a vote and little sway in the justice system, Palestinians also face stringent work restrictions that prevent them from working in the public sector or holdings jobs in medicine or law. The refugee camps are, in general, greatly impoverished, without educational opportunity, and feel imprisoning; Israel has yet to allow refugees to return, and Palestinian Muslims struggle to get citizenship or even a visa in another country.

Senait Debesu A man in the town of Bao Vinh makes his way to a cafe one morning.

National

For ’Ali’s generation, memory of Palestine is fading while its myth persists. His parent’s generation did not grow up in their homeland, yet were well-versed in their parents’ recollections; for ’Ali and his peers, Palestine is a fully bounded identity with shifting roots. As a refugee, ’Ali is caught in a political no-man’s land in which neither Israel nor Lebanon will account for the hundreds of thousands that cannot return home or fully settle where they are forced to live. ’Ali, now age seven, does not see a constricted future. Like many of the children I tutored in English at one of Shatila’s children’s centers, he is not of age and cannot fully comprehend the political reality to which he is tethered. But over the months I watched teenagers, who may still proudly don a black-and-white checkered scarf for a protest, slowly acknowledge their restricted realities; it is not merely an absence of decent schoolbooks that produces a 50% fail rate in the camp’s schools.

Nick Dynan Ellie, Olivia, and Anne Barnes pray before heading to bed.

National

These are images of the camp’s innocence, its innocents, who vigorously confront their Palestinian identities and have yet to feel the bite of despair. For this generation, farther from its land than ever, hope is still borne that one day the Palestinians may return home.

Sean P. Smith is a senior majoring in religion. He spent his junior year in Beirut, Lebanon, and worked and photographed in Shatila. He can be reached at sean.philip.smith@gmail.com

campus

by Anna Burgess

“T

Louise Blavet

he College ACB, or College Anonymous Confession Board, seeks to give students a place to​ vent, rant, and talk to college peers in an environment free from social constraints and about subjects that might otherwise be taboo.” So reads the mission statement of www.CollegeACB.com, an online discussion board by and for college students nationwide. The website was created in 2009 by Peter Frank of the Polytechnic School. Though he recently sold his share in ‘ACB,’ Frank owned and operated the site for two years, building it into the success it is today.

As the mission statement says, ACB lets students discuss issues they find relevant to their schools or peers. The site is organized by school, and within each school's page, it is broken up into four categories: Advice, Sex, Issues, and Academics. Threads in the Tufts “Advice” cat- negative. In talking with students whose egory range from “I Need Advice Before names have appeared on the website, reMatriculation” to “Shavin' the Ol' Pubes.” actions to posts vary. One student, KaThe “Issues” section, meanwhile, contains tie*, said the website can “make [people] posts on laundry, referenda 3 and 4, and feel attacked,” but can “also be a positive “Fat Bitches on Campus.” self-esteem booster, depending on the The ACB official blog reads, “ACB tone of the comment.” Katie, who had consistently hosts positive and negaa higher level comments “In theory, ACB is a tive of discourse— written about her, while still makgood way to promote said that when she ing room for the found out she was free speech...” occasional goson the website, her sip post.” It's true first reaction was, that on Tufts' ACB, most posts are ques- “Cool, people know my name.” tions or opinions on campus issues. Some Another student named on the site, posts, though, target specific people or Charlotte*, had a very different initial regroups, and some have extremely hostile action to the post about her. She says, “I statements, such as, “I hate you” and “I'm was extremely hurt...I did not like that going to kill you.” someone I knew thought this about me, While posts like these may not be [or] that someone who didn't know me considered “gossip,” they are undeniably could have seen me walking around and

made an assumption about my character.” She wishes the site would be shut down, explaining, “We're supposed to be supporting each other and growing and learning from each other, which can't happen in a negative and judgmental environment.”

Right now, the site is down for maintenance, as the new management is making some changes. Chances are good, though, that ACB won't be shut down permanently, since its popularity only seems to be growing. Even if ACB does remain active, students upset by the site can get posts removed. However, a request for removal must cite a specific post, not a whole thread, and the post in question must be related to an individual, not an organization. So students who take offense to comments can usually get those comments removed, which is an important feature of the site.

There are certain individuals, though, whose names come up on Tufts' ACB repeatedly, and few of these people are reviewed positively. Why such hostility? It could be that, as Katie puts it, “In theory, [ACB] is a good way to promote free speech, but [the Tufts] campus takes advantage of that.” She added that in her opinion, posters are “people who are not confident to voice their opinions publicly and take responsibility for their comments.” If Katie is correct in this assumption, then College ACB is inherently a negative site, encouraging students to hide behind anonymity. On the other hand, being freed from recognition could ​allow more honest discussion among peers. Whatever harm or good it does, ACB certainly gives Tufts students something to talk about—and a forum on which to talk about it. O

*Names have been changed FEBRUARY 28, 2011

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Spilt Beans

H

ailing from sunny Los Angeles and soggy Seattle, we’ve noticed a few problems with how Tufts does winters. Buildings are always heated to 100 degrees instead of a cool room (ROOM!) temp, and what’s even worse is when you run into a building with a

full bladder and five layers of clothing and find nowhere to properly relieve yourself of either.

A hook (if it hasn’t been ripped off the door by God knows what) is only so big.

C’mon Tufts. Give us the space we need to do our business! In this vein, we find particular fault with the Eaton first floor bathrooms and

their

wretched

McStalls.

On the outside, Eaton is a beautiful building—Corinthian columns, cornices, and aegises abound. On the inside, things get strange. Narrow, sloped hallways and brown heather carpets do little justice to the beautiful neoclassical exterior. What lies hidden behind the dark wood grain doors of the men’s Eaton bathroom is similarly odd. The aforementioned bathroom contains the following: three sinks, three stalls, two soap dispensers, one paper towel machine, fifty three instances of graffiti, and one large-ass pillar.

Entering the bathroom, the first thing a man encounters is a single pillar. Despite lacking the neoclassical adornment of the pillars outside Eaton, this pillar is the focal point of the bathroom. It gives the bathroom a unique character. If you ask someone to describe the Eaton bathroom, they will probably say, “Oh yeah, it’s the one with that huge pillar right in the center of the bathroom,” or they might mention that the bathroom has a sink to stall ratio of 1:1. Three sinks for a mere three stalls—what is this strange overemphasis on cleanliness? You might say that, in a bathroom, there cannot be an overemphasis on cleanliness. I would counter your claim by saying, “Yes, there can be.” More sinks do not clean hands make. Be honest, have you ever been in a bathroom with two sinks and thought to yourself, “Damn, I really wish there was another sink.” Nope, ’cause three sinks is just strange. Eaton’s men’s bathroom is fine, but if you don’t like the heebeegeebies, I would not recommend it for more than an absolutely necessary urination.

Alison By isnow L

aniel & D eller H

Whatc been Eaton?!?

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Spilt Beans

Aside from freshman pre-registration and a few overcrowded meetings, I’ve only entered Eaton on my own accord twice— each time an attempt to pull an all-nighter. (Consequently, Eaton is both my least-visited academic building on campus and probably my most slept-in academic building on campus). And when do you gotta go more than when your hydration station consists of water, Snapple, and the all-powerful bowelflushing coffee?

My normal public bathroom routine is to make a beeline for that big ol’ handicap stall, and that’s that (though I swear if I heard the roll of a wheelchair or the clickety clack of crutches I would stop mid-pee to give that woman her rightful toilet!). However, in Eaton, it’s more like a Goldilocks and the Three Bears routine.

First, I go to the Papa Bear stall, where up until recently, a huge chunk of ceiling was missing. This kickstarts my Jewish (Goldilocks the schlimazel) neurosis, and I start to consider the ceiling people who may be watching me, the camera that may be feeding to a television owned by the ceiling people (or worse, AEPi), and, of course, the rats and/or snakes that might attack me whilst I am in a compromising position. If you travel to the Papa Bear Stall today, you’ll notice the ceiling has been repaired, yet other problems have arisen. The toilet seat has been mysteriously detached from the toilet itself. Though I am a pro-squatter and have the thigh muscles to prove it, I still wouldn’t take a chance on that dodgy-ceilinged stall.

So, like Goldilocks, I go down the line to the Mama Bear stall which, more often than not, is backed up (whatcha been Eaton, Mama Bear? Fiber-rich porridge!).

If only the final stall was juuuuust right.

In reality, it is anything but(t). A discussion with guy friends and a quick bout of investigative journalism has confirmed that the Baby Bear Stall exists on both the men’s and women’s sides. You know what I’m talking about. That itsy bitsy stall that has literally been built for Baby Bear and assumes that his growth will be severely stunted to runt status. If you walk in there with all your winter gear, very little space is left for your actual body—especially if said body has been contorted into squatting pose. My face is all up in my down (coat), my hands are holding onto my backpack, and my eyes are looking at the hat unsteadily balanced upon the hidden tip of the hook. Jewish neurosis, welcome back.

Alas, Eaton doesn’t provide Goldilocks with a happily ever after. And you have to admit, that’s a super sneaky defense mechanism. My advice? Defer to the fancy one-seater upstairs. O

aniel eller

cha

?

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

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Campus Life

Campus colloquial: taking a closer look at the words we use

go•ing out \gō-iŋ aut\ I

by Nicola Pardy

t’s a Friday afternoon. I’ve been sitting in Tisch for about an hour now, brushing shoulders with other post-morning recitation goers who have come here to get some work done before the weekend. A series of “We Hate Valentine’s Day” party facebook event invitations have assured me that tonight is guaranteed be the “MOST EPIC NIGHT EVER,” so I figure I should get some work done before the evening festivities. As I sit working, I hear the classic Friday-fever question among students about half a dozen times: “Are you going out tonight?”

Have you ever noticed how ambiguous that phrase is?

Going out where? Going out for what? On college campuses, of course, the common usage of the term refers to going out partying, most usually at frats or on-campus houses.

However, we’re not really ‘going out’ anywhere, spatially speaking; at least no more than we would be going out to the library or to the dining hall. This suggests, then, that ‘going out’ isn’t so much a locational concept as an abstract sociological idea.

Let’s look first at the ambiguity of the term. If you add a simple preposition such as ‘for’ or ‘to’ to the end of the term ‘going out,’ it loses its party connotations. “I’m going out for dinner” or “I’m going out to a movie” explicitly states what the speaker plans on doing, whereas ‘going out’ on its own needs no further explanation; most people understand that it refers to attending any kind of large social function.

This ambiguity allows for the term to be adapted to specific definitions within different social groups. For example, one of my friends who goes to Bard College in Annandale-OnHudson (rural New York) explained to me that, for Bard students, ‘going out’ can mean anything from playing drinking games in the dorm with people outside your immediate friend group to going to a small music show on campus 20

TUFTS OBSERVER

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where there is dancing. For University of Georgia students, on the other hand, ‘going out’ almost always means exploring the bars of downtown Athens—literally, ‘going out on the town.’ And here at Tufts, ‘going out’ references can vary from frat house escapades to Boston nightlife experiences.

What can be said about all these unique takes on the term ‘going out’ is that they all share one thing in common: the element of the unknown. The idea of going out—it seems to almost always involve venturing outside social boundaries into a public world where you can see and be seen by those around you. Freshman Neil Aronson explains, “Going out is a state of mind. It doesn’t matter where you’re going or what the technical conditions are necessarily; it’s more about the perceived conditions of the night.” So perhaps, at its core, the essence of going out is the pursuit of possibility. The allure of being somewhere where you may not know everyone means that there are virtually unlimited possibilities with each new person you encounter—anyone could be a potential new friend or romantic interest. Even you yourself have the potential to be any kind of character for the night.

Your behavior and the behavior of others are set upon a kind of theatrical stage where anything goes. The whole idea of ‘going out’ does not entail any specific location; in fact, the factor of location is pretty much arbitrary. More important is the notion of the public stage that is involved— the endeavor to venture into an abstract social world to seek out the excitement of its seemingly boundless possibilities.

So what at first may seem a simple term at face value may suggest more about the nature of our social interactions than we realize. The ambiguous linguistics of the term is no mistake. Going out where? Going out for what?

Well, we don’t really know. But, in the end, I think we’ll find that knowledge of our purpose isn’t all that important anyway. O

HUMOR

bunchofgirls

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Opinion

by Caitlin Schwartz

T

his past New Year’s Eve, I was at my best friend Molly’s house sitting around eating pizza. Molly and I have been friends since third grade; we attended the same elementary school in Brooklyn. As we prepared for 2011, it was difficult to imagine that we’d be graduating from college this May. Overwhelmed by this prospect, I noted, “You know what’s crazy? I have absolutely no idea what I’ll be doing exactly a year from now.” Molly’s brother, Josh, responded right away, “Probably sitting in the exact same place saying the exact same shit.”

Despite all of the stress and chaos and anxiety about the looming mystery of next year for us seniors, I realized that Josh is probably right. And it’s really not so bad.

It seems like we’ve spent each phase of our lives so far preparing for the next phase. It used to be a lot simpler. Education professionals have spent their lives developing the tests and programs that prepare elementary school children for middle school and then middle school children for high school. We spent much of our high school careers preparing ourselves for college—or, more accurately, building the image of ourselves that would serve us best in getting us accepted into our choice schools. All along the way, our preparation served to shape our expectations for our future pursuits. Now, after almost four complete years at Tufts, we may feel older, wiser, more complicated and learned, but I don’t think that we feel more skilled.

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Natasha jessen-petersen

Ready, Able In so many ways, being at college discourages us from developing the skills and independence that would prepare us for life in the real world. By cushioning and nourishing us, Tufts lets us avoid the trickier, messier task at hand: learning how to function like an actual adult. Tufts isn’t harsh with us. We are coaxed and encouraged to flex our intellectual muscles and nurture our individuality. Our professors respect us for our intelligence and recognize our academic potential, but we aren’t really expected to act like adults. The way we act in class is not too different from how we behave when we’re just chilling with friends.

The process of cultivating and expressing our distinct identities is prioritized over disciplining us and encouraging us to get serious. We’re free to behave like glorified children. And the truth is, we like it.

We’re not ready to be beaten up and have our dignity shredded by our superiors. There will be plenty of time for that once we get out of here. College is preparing us for these battles by letting us build our confidence. We’re fortifying ourselves for when our smarts and charm will no longer be enough to buoy us along. College may feel like a cozy extension of the leniency and support that we’ve experienced throughout our protracted kidhood, but as we’ll find out soon enough, it’s not going to last forever.

Last Thursday night, I had a wonderful time attending my Senior Dinner at the Gifford House with the Bacows. We discussed the elements that we felt shaped our experiences here at Tufts, and we had the opportunity to speak to alumni who sought to prepare us for the transitions we

face after graduation. President Bacow addressed the ambiguity in understanding our Tufts degree’s significance to our success in the real world. He noted that the trajectory that our lives will follow reflects the fortuity of events, and both he and the alumni warned us that we are bound to feel extremely unprepared at many moments and have our share of failures and missteps.

President Bacow emphasized that the most important thing that we learned at Tufts is how to learn. This is the skill that we can take with us, that we can apply to our future pursuits and endeavors. There’s no surefire way to prepare for the unknown.

Tufts prepares us by making us adaptive, by teaching us to extract the best from new situations and understand how they relate to our goals and capabilities.

A year from now, a lot of us may start jobs, grad school, or whatever other bigger and better things our futures hold. Even so, most of us are still going to be sitting on the couch in some way or another. We’re still going to be learning. Tufts isn’t an assembly line that pops us out ready to take on whatever we desire to do. We need to make that happen for ourselves. We do it as we go along. We move into houses and wikiHow using a can opener. We get job interviews and frantically text our parents from the bathroom for last minute words of wisdom. We tend to screw stuff up, the learning part comes in when we manage to put the stuff we screwed up back together.

While we may not be completely prepared for whatever is going to be hurled our way, we are prepared for one thing: to rebound from screwing up in the most graceful, productive way possible. O

Opinion

Our Sustainable Future

ince the selection of a new Tufts President on November 30, Tufts students have been flooding Google with the name Anthony Monaco. Some wanted to see if his hailing from Oxford meant he would have a British accent, some were curious about his family, and some of us were pursuing more serious topics, hoping to determine if we could count on this new university leader as a champion of our most valued causes. I, personally, was looking into Monaco’s stance on the environment. As it turns out, he has plenty of experience—so why hasn’t he advertised it?

According to his CV, Monaco is chairman of Oxford’s Sustainability Steering Committee, a title that indicates not only significant knowledge of the importance of enacting environmentally-conscious policy at a university, but also considerable experience in such endeavors. The Sustainability Steering Committee makes decisions for a sustainable future based on the input of the Environmental Panel, a comprehensive organization featuring an array of campus interest groups. The panel exists to “provide a forum for the exchange of information and discussion of matters relevant to the implementation and development of the University’s Environmental Sustainability Policy.” This policy, while a bit vague and lacking any concrete goals or standards, presents a holistic view of sustainable development, addressing concepts from energy and greenhouse gases to sustainable purchasing to biodiversity.

As chairman of the committee that creates highly informed environmental policy, Monaco clearly has experience with sustainability at a university level—so why didn’t we see this in his platform? Monaco is in charge of sustainable development at Oxford; this is no small feat. Regardless of the area, being the head of an overarching university committee seems worth highlighting or at least mentioning in a campaign for university president. And indeed, Monaco thought so, too. In January of 2010, Monaco became

one of three finalists for a coveted spot as the executive vice chancellor and provost for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

According to The Daily Tar Heel, the school newspaper, “Monaco’s ambitions for UNC include increasing environmental sustainability, promoting diversity among faculty and enhancing the student experience in both classrooms and residence halls.” His goals for Tufts were the same, except for the notably absent move for “increasing environmental sustainability.”

Where did this environmentalism go?

Are we responsible for its disappearance?

To start with the latter question, I think the answer is a resounding “yes.” Monaco has the experience, has included his penchant for sustainability in previous campaigns, and clearly knows how to market himself—he was chosen as our next president, after all. I think we can blame ourselves for not making environmentalism a priority. Although one paragraph of the 22-page document detailing the job description for president describes Tufts’ history of environmental sustainability, not one section of the four pages detailing the qualifications for president and the opportunities and challenges for a new president at Tufts mentions environmental leadership. Beyond this, I would doubt that anyone came forward and pushed the issue of sustainability.

becky plante

S

By Katherine Sawyer

Diversity became a big issue in this bid for president, not only because of its inherent importance, but also because individuals came forward and made their voices heard—they asked for a president who valued diversity, and the university listened.

Increasing diversity, working toward need blind admissions, and maintaining an international, global perspective are all ideas Monaco presented because they are all ideas he knew Tufts values. I don’t think he knew we valued environmental sustainability because neither the university nor the student body made a point to highlight this issue. Only by combing through Monaco’s CV could I find any indication of his environmental involvement; there was no mention of it in any of the materials the university published after his selection, nor in his interview with the Daily.

We supposedly pride ourselves on being a “green” institution but what is that worth if we don’t ask for environmental leaders?

I’m hopeful that despite the previous apathy we showed towards the environmental credentials of our next president, Monaco’s environmentalism hasn’t gone anywhere; ideally, he will take Tufts in a new direction, using his expertise in sustainable development to build a better, more environmentally conscious Tufts. We stand at a critical point in the university’s development: here we have a leader with the knowledge and power to take Tufts in the direction many of us want (and know that we need) in this ecologically degraded world; Monaco’s actions as president will determine whether or not we take this path. Can we as a community care enough and push hard enough to prove that these issues matter to us? I have enough faith in Tufts students to pose a tentative “yes.” What I know for sure is that we need to start asking and showing right now that we as a campus value the environment, and that our next president should take this into consideration if he wants to meet the needs of his campus. So, future President Monaco, I’m imploring you: please use your expertise and experience to take the Tufts community in a more sustainable direction.

It does matter to us. O FEBRUARY 28, 2011

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Off Offcampus campus

TO

INFINITY AnD beyonD

Boston’s Renovated Planetarium

Courtesy of Boston Museum of Science

24 24

TUFTS OBSERVER OBSERVER TUFTS

FEBRUARY 28, 28, 2011 2011 FEBRUARY

∞ off campus

L

By Joshua Aschheim

ooking for a fun, fast, and easy trip into Boston? Check out the Science Museum’s new Charles Hayden Planetarium. After being closed for a year in order to accommodate a nine million dollar renovation, the planetarium reopened again this month.

Every aspect of the theater was upgraded from its original 1958 form in order to produce a superior viewing experience. The new theater, which is billed as the most technologically advanced digital theater in New England, boasts a state of the art speaker system, a projector that can display images sharper than the human eye can see, and an air conditioner so quiet that the theater can accurately replicate the silence of outer space.

The new Zeiss Starmaster projector can display over 9,000 stars at a time. In fact the projector’s resolution is so high that in order to fully appreciate its ability, you would need to pull out your binoculars. Where the naked human eye might only see one star, the aided eye would see hundreds of starts, much like taking a telescope to a clear night’s sky.

Upon first entering the darkened theater, the dim purple lights begin to set the magical mood for the impending journey. The seats form concentric circles around the liberty-bell-sized projector

in the center of the room. Above, a 60foot dome-shaped screen appears to be an endless column into the sky. Superreclined seats await eager viewers, positioning them into lounged posture and readying them for blast-off. Spectators will travel faster than the speed of light through outer space, cruising by planets, suns, and galaxies.

The planetarium can show preprogrammed spectacles such as its current feature, Undiscovered Worlds: The Search Beyond Our Sun. This presentation, which runs for about 20 minutes, features the newest and most advanced facts, data, and statistics about exoplanets (planets outside the solar system). It tours a fourplanet solar system about 20 light years away, sharing information about potentially habitable exoplanets. The demonstration shares revolutionary discoveries, leaving viewers enlightened yet wanting to know more.

As more planets and starts are found, the existing shows can be amended.

Moreover, the state-of-the-art software running the planetarium allows the museum to show anything the human mind can dream up. In fact, the system can create and display a rendering of what any place within our solar system would look like from anywhere else in the solar system. It can even do so from any point in time between 8011 B.C.E and 12,011, an

impressive 20,000-year range. This allows ‘live’ demonstrations to be accomplished where audience members can interact with the system and a customized spectacle can be achieved.

The theater can also be used for nonspace travel adventures, allowing audiences to travel through the human body or alongside dolphins in the depths of the ocean. Moreover, it will host performances where audience members can choose the music to accompany light shows.

Starting in the spring the planetarium will feature musical performances accompanied by star and laser shows above.

To get the most out of your experience, be sure to see a show on a clear Friday night between March 3rd and November 18th. On these dates you will also have free access to the museum’s Gilliand Observatory, where you can look through the computer-controlled telescope (between 8:30 and 10pm).

So take a trip on the green line to the Science Park stop and start your journey.

Let the Charles Hayden Planetarium at the Boston Science Museum entertain, educate and impress you. Tickets cost $10 for a planetarium show and $26 for a planetarium show, plus entry to the science museum. Tickets are available online at www.mos.org or at the Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston, MA 02114. O

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Poetry & Prose

New Laws Regarding the Conversion of Matter and Energy 1st Law

By Mark Gosztyla

Says, we live in a closed system.

Says, if that bear and her three cubs don’t eat us, some other couple out for a vacation hike will be meat, dead meat, never to reach the top of the Diamond Mountain.

The bear feints, false-charges, two strides; cubs black-blurring into the undergrowth The first law says, if I tell you to run, and then charge the bear with my bare teeth, bite through her thick, sun-platinumed fur, I will become the bear.

And the bear will become me.

And if you say you love me, then what I’m feeling must be love too.

Remember to breathe while you run, my love.

Watch the clouds you create as you exhale: the eternal hesitation.

3rd Law

Begins with the fact that when something goes in hot it stays hot.

And, when something goes in cold it stays cold; a car door slams louder in February than it does in May.

Ariel Leftland

It ends with a warning: Change is impossible. I’m inside the car; the bear I could be is impossible; keep arms and legs inside at all times; grimace through cramping muscles;

26

cross fingers and breathe deeply for relaxation; it will only hurt until numbness is reached: it will only hurt after the second time around.

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2 Law nd

Says, the fish stays in the river until I pry him gripping and slipping into the light.

The fish is not afraid of my clumsy-razored-train-wreck claws, my insensitive eyes.

It says that if I sit waist deep just before the falls and eat only the fat and eggs, ripping them free with a shake of my head, gurgling the rainbow oil, and letting the bodies drift downstream for the cubs to finish off, I will tap into the amaranthine collective memory of the river.

4th Law

Has to do with a death scream, a klaxon clanging, a hammer and a firing pin.

It has something to do with the funeral procession, in the mist, between slumping mills; a black bear feeling the bite of a perfectly located blue bug.

But it also has something to do with disillusionment.

The man who once wore the clown suit is really just a man.

The man once in the ice cube is just a man too; it’s just that somewhere along the way he lost his ability to feel, to empathize, and wrapped himself in a bearskin.

And now must wait for a very warm day, for the clouds to blow off the summit, a sun’s ray to save him.

*Originally featured in Scarab: a literary magazine exclusively for the iPhone

On Immortality

By Eric Sinski A lone cross on the side of a hill

Stands as a testament to man’s attempt

To conquer the pains and sorrows of his earthly existence With the sweet fruit of immortality How does man not see

That dry beds of rock now stand

Where mighty rivers once reigned That green emerges once again From the damp, fertile ground

As orange blossoms paint the landscape With the dawn of spring How does man not see That his immortality

Lies not in the frozen thought of other men But rather in the way

The way That dots the trees with flushes of yellow in the spring Yet leaves those branches cold and barren in the fall The way

That springs fresh crops from the fields

While old trees return once again to their roots The way

Which grants him life in the present

As it has done for countless generations before Who bathed in the same rivers Who plowed the same fields

And who pondered the same night sky How can man not see

That he is neither separate from the ground that supports his feet Nor from the air that sustains him How does man not see?

As his immortal cross fades into the countryside While orange blossoms bloom once again

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Safe Campus Humor

POLICE BLOTTER

Do they drink (and get caught) at other schools?

Compiled below is the ‘best of’ from our neighboring institutions of higher learning. The moral of the story? Smart people still do stupid stuff. Everywhere.

MIT Feb. 4, 8:30 am Bldg. W1 Apparently the dining halls at MIT are not the same caliber as Dewick, as an individual reported their lunch box stolen from the W92 dock area.

Northeastern University Thursday, Feb. 10, 10 am Location Unknown A be-leagured student was distraught to find that her once-lost backpack (which she was picking up from the free-stuff-pile, I mean lost-andfound), had been liberated of her sunglasses.

Northeastern University Sunday, Feb. 13, 1 am Location Unknown An astute RA noiced three people moving, though only two actively walking. Suspicious that the third was highly intoxicated, he notified the NUPD. The police entered the room of the previously carried student where he was evaluated by EMTs and refused treatment. As they were leaving, the drunkard’s friends called out that the drunkard had since fallen out of bed. At this point, it was glaringly clear that he should, perhaps, receive medical attention.

Compiled from The Harvard Crimpson, The Tech at MIT, and The Huntington News of Northeastern University.

—Illustion by Ryan Stolp 28

TUFTS OBSERVER

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

Harvard Harvard kids are pretty smart. They usually are all business. But why, when they stole the coins inside the Mather House candy machine on Friday, did they not take a single piece of candy? They’re too grown up about it all.

Cunning police work has finally implicated three female suspects in a thieving rampage in which $83 worth of cosmetics was stolen from the second floor bathroom of Weld Hall. The thieved items include two curling irons and a bottle of (expensive?) shampoo.

Best Larcenies

Bottle of shampoo • Harvard Jeep taken to NH • MIT Vacuum cleaner • MIT

National

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TUFTS OBSERVER

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

amy shipp