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Interview | Dan Winslow

History on the Hill: Fletcher

Aaron Leibowitz | The Fan

I've had a handful of sports heroes. Usually, it's the best player of the moment on my favorite teams: Mike Piazza (went as him for three straight years on Halloween), Allan Houston, David Wright. They were great players and seemed like pretty decent human beings.

Former Congresswoman speaks on national security

 Former Congresswoman Jane Harman and Admiral James Stavridis, dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, spoke about success and failure during their careers at yesterday's open house for recently admitted Fletcher students.

We're here because its happens here

Observed in April, Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) is an annual campaign designated to raise awareness about sexual assault and rape, and educate on how to prevent sexual violence. The 2014 SAAM campaign is particularly relevant to our campus, specifically because it focuses on healthy sexuality and young people. Whether you're a freshman just finding your fit on campus or a senior preparing to graduate and enter the "real world," this month is about promoting a healthy foundation for relationships, health and sexual violence prevention.

Students see Valentine’s Day as opportunity for community service

This Friday, many couples will be celebrating Valentine’s Day with candlelit dinners, evenings in the city and heart-shaped boxes of chocolates. Tufts students, however, are proving that there are many other ways to celebrate the holiday of love.

Students see Valentine's Day as opportunity for community service

This Friday, many couples will be celebrating Valentine's Day with candlelit dinners, evenings in the city and heart-shaped boxes of chocolates. Tufts students, however, are proving that there are many other ways to celebrate the holiday of love.

Anastasia Korolov | Back to the Present

The last guy I dated was very... nice. Extremely nice. He wanted to help everyone. To the point where he'd actually start crying if he couldn't.

Reverend McGonigle discusses chaplaincy

The Tufts Daily: What made you want to become a University chaplain? Was it something you always knew you wanted to do?  Reverend Greg McGonigle: It’s been a journey. I grew up in the Boston area, and my family is Catholic. I’ve been interested in spirituality my whole life, and so I decided I wanted to go to a Catholic high school. It was, in fact, studying religion in school that raised a lot of questions for me about what I believe, and the relationship between facts and faith. It set me on a journey of exploring different faiths beyond Christianity.At the same time, I was taking literature classes that introduced me to the Transcendentalist period. I was studying beautiful writings about nature, and how we can connect with the divine through our own minds and through our experiences in nature. That was very appealing to me. When I got to college — I ended up going to Brown University because I wanted to study world religions and because I liked the progressive atmosphere — I found Unitarian Universalism, which is the tradition I now belong to myself. It’s a tradition that has strong progressive ethical beliefs but is open theologically to a lot of different ways of understanding life and the universe. I found a home in Unitarian Universalism, and ended up going to Harvard Divinity School to continue studying religions. I had initially considered becoming a professor, but I started thinking of ministry as a way to bring together my interests in religion with my interests in caring for people and social justice. I knew I wanted to be in higher education, so I realized chaplaincy would allow me to combine all of my interests.  TD: How did your family react to your change in faith? GM: My decision to move into a different faith tradition was not an easy one for my family at the beginning. It was difficult for all of us because they’re very committed to their faith and I’m committed to mine. I never saw my becoming Unitarian Universalist as necessarily leaving Catholicism. Like languages, Catholicism was my first language in faith, and then I took on another — but you never really lose the first one you learned. That’s why it wasn’t a rejection; it was an embracing, an expansion for me. It was still very hard nonetheless, and I believe that process of both becoming confident in my own identity, as well as working through that with my family, taught me a lot, not only about myself, but also about how those sorts of situations can go — an important lesson, especially working now with those in a university setting who are also experiencing big transitions in their lives, about studies, careers, loves, and beliefs. Q: What kind of work are chaplains engaged in? What is your role here at Tufts and what kinds of programs do you offer on campus? GM: We do four main things. First, we support religious and philosophical communities. Tufts has about 20 of them, and part of the work of the chaplains is supporting those groups, advising them and helping them to do the things they do. We work with the Freethought Society [and] nonreligious students as well. Second, we educate about religions in society and the world; we offer educational and cultural programming for the whole university. Third, we promote interfaith engagement. I work with the Interfaith Student Council, encouraging dialogue across traditions, mutual learning, and engagement on social justice issues people care about. The fourth piece is pastoral care; we do direct counseling, we provide support for people when unfortunate events occur, we do memorial services on campus, and we do weddings as well. We do some work in campus and community relations too, and collaborative programming with various academic departments and programs. We’re hoping to do more with The Fletcher School around international issues, and with Tisch College around active citizenship. Those are some of the relationships we’re hoping to build in the next five to 10 years.  Q: What have you seen this semester at Tufts that you would like to change? What would you like to accomplish in the coming years? GM: I would definitely like to grow some of the resources around the communities we have. We have amazing, vibrant, spiritual and philosophical communities and leaders doing amazing things. In addition to their 20 or so weekly gatherings, all of them offer many one-time programs — speakers, retreats, service projects and musical opportunities. We’re thinking about how we can better support and be a resource for those initiatives. We’re also trying to cultivate the Interfaith Student Council, and help them to take the lead in getting the university engaged in religious pluralism and religious literacy. A very important part of my vision is that we adopt a collaborative, intersectional, and student empowerment approach — seeing where the energy is for students and focusing our resources in those directions. At the same time we’re increasing resources for faculty and staff — through collaborations with the new Wellness Center [for faculty and staff] — and looking to provide more spiritual resources on Tufts’ Boston and Grafton campuses. We also need to explore support for the spiritual but not religious.12

TCU Senate Trustee Reps present venture projects

The three Trustee Representatives on the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate delivered a mock presentation of their venture projects in Eaton 203 last night, in preparation for their upcoming meeting with the Board of Trustees this Friday.

Harvard bomb threat sparks dialogue about stress-management resources on campus

Last month, a sophomore at Harvard University falsely reported that shrapnel bombs had been placed around the campus to avoid taking a final exam, later claiming in his defense that he acted because of a large amount of academic pressure. While this is an extreme case of how stress can lead a student to act rashly, it calls into question the resources that are provided to college students across the country to help them cope with the pressures of being an undergraduate.According to Associate Dean of Orientation and Student Transition Laura Doane, if a similar situation were to arise at Tufts, the university’s emergency operations would be put into motion to deal with it appropriately.“The sad thing is we do have emergency protocols in place. We hope we don’t have to use them,” she said.Julie Jampel, director of Training and Continuing Education at Counseling and Mental Health Service (CMHS), explained that one resource that aims to help students handle stress — not only during emergencies, but throughout the semester — is the support that the counseling center provides.“Most students who call us for an appointment are able to schedule it within a couple of days,” Jampel told the Daily in an email. “At certain points in the semester, when we are especially busy, it may be necessary to wait a week or so for an appointment. However, we are able to accommodate those students who need to be seen urgently.”Sophomore Emma Brenner-Bryant, co-president of Tufts Health Advocates (THA), a student advisory board to Tufts’ Health Service, relayed student concerns that counselors are not available enough.“We consistently hear that you can’t get in and make an appointment,” she said.According to Brenner-Bryant, when THA has brought these student concerns to CMHS, the service reported that they would need more funding to accommodate these concerns. This lack of resources, Brenner-Bryant pointed out, can leave students without the care they require.“Tufts students are the kind of kids who will keep it together and not say they need mental health services,” Brenner-Bryant said. “We pretend we can suck it up ... Students don’t know how to handle it in a productive way. There’s a lot of drinking and partying to try [to] relax because we’re all so uptight and stressed during the school year.”According to the CMHS, its primary goal is prevention of mental health problems — a goal that can prove difficult without the proper amount of resources, like a sufficient number counselors.“I personally don’t think that Tufts has enough of a support system in place for those who need it,” Brenner-Bryant explained.Dean John Barker was unable to comment on the amount of funding allocated per annum to the CMHS. The Mandatory Health Services Fee for the 2013-14 academic year is $710, according to the Bursar, and although all students pay this fee, only 25 percent of students use their health services resources annually, according to the service.Doane, in contrast to Brenner-Bryant’s concerns, affirmed her belief that the CMHS is prepared to provide the support it claims to offer.“[The CMHS] is prepared for and really does see the gamut — homesickness, general stress, adjusting to the college environment — academically and socially, which is particularly true for first and second semester students,” Doane said. “They’re well-equipped for students who are willing to harm themselves or others. They’re trained clinicians.”THA, however, has found that the setup of the CMHS is not aligned with most students’ needs for long-term counseling. According to the CMHS website, students with more complex mental health needs will be referred to off-campus clinicians.“Another issue is they only have short-term counseling,” Brenner-Bryant said. “A lot of people are turned off by that. But then [students] don’t have the resources to get off campus ... So the next question is: Would students be willing to pay more for the health services fee?”Doane pointed out that the service is supposed to be accessible to all students, whether they have mental health problems or not.“Not only is our support available and ready, but every student is expected to access that support,” she said. “It is better to start ... using [this] kind of support now rather than later.”Doane noted that another year-round resource that students can access is Time Management and Study Strategies (TM & SS) Consulting, where students can work one-on-one with a consultant about anything from time management to test-taking strategies.“TM & SS is the best non-secret on campus,” Doane said. “The idea behind that is that no matter how rigorous your high school curriculum, college coursework is different. I see students who do well in class, get the material and do well on homework, and then they bomb a test.”Brenner-Bryant attributed a lot of student stress to excessive workloads, not to a lack of time management.12

Transgender operations to be covered in faculty health plan

The university’s faculty health insurance plan will this January offer new benefits to transgender faculty, including coverage for gender reassignment surgery.

Social media impacts happiness, research says

While sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were created to connect users and enhance social interactions, many research studies show the opposite is occurring — people who use social media heavily throughout their day can experience detachment, boredom and even loneliness. Even looking at pictures of food on Instagram can decrease satisfaction gained from actually eating the same food, according to research published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology this September. Should Tufts students be worried about their social media use?According to Julie Ross, director of Tufts’ Counseling and Mental Health Service, the effects of social media on students’ mental health can change how we connect with one another in person, making relationships more superficial.“Having a constant focus on what is happening somewhere else effectively removes people from staying connected in the face-to-face interactions they could be having, or are having at the moment, as those interactions get constantly interrupted by electronic signals from the phone or computer,” Ross told the Daily in an email. “Social media can provide the appearance of connection without an authentic connection.”A study conducted by Timothy Wilson, the Sherrell J. Aston professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, showed that college students rely on social media and technology to an unhealthy degree, according to a 2013 article in the New Yorker by Maria Konnikova.“College students start going ‘crazy’ after just a few minutes in a room without their phones or a computer,” Konnikova wrote.This phenomenon occurs all over campus, with students sitting around tables in the Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center aimlessly scrolling through Twitter and perusing Facebook during lectures instead of taking notes.“One would think we could spend the time mentally entertaining ourselves ... but we can’t. We’ve forgotten how,” Wilson said.According to sophomore Eyob Sharew, some Tufts students focus on social media more than others.“Everyone has a smartphone, so people use it heavily, definitely more in some circles than others,” Sharew said. “Some circles will do the thing where everybody is on their phones at dinner, and they’re not talking to each other. We’re just of that generation.”Student groups at Tufts, however, see Facebook and other social media outlets as an important way of promoting student groups and events. Junior Dan Jubelirer is an active Facebook user but does not spend the majority of his time perusing other people’s pages. He said that he sees Facebook as a resource, as opposed to a replacement, for social life.“I use Facebook mostly for organizing, for work with Tufts Divest [for Our Future] and Students for a Just and Stable Future and to connect with people all around the country who all are on Facebook,” he said. “It’s just a tool. You can use it well, you can use it poorly, you can use it productively or you can waste time on it.”Sharew found that the time he spends online can usually be better spent studying or spending time with friends. He explained that he deactivated his Facebook account about one year ago.“I cut out Facebook because I realized the time that I was spending on Facebook was making inroads into the time that I should’ve spent studying and connecting with other people,” he said. “Time spent with real people or time spent doing things I was supposed to be doing was much more valuable time spent than the time spent on Facebook.”A 2010 article in The New Yorker examined various studies linking Facebook use and mood and found that the way in which people use the site — and not the duration of use — was the deciding factor in determining whether there was an increase or decrease in level of happiness. According to the article, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University observed positive mood changes when participants directly engaged with others through messages, wall posts or “likes,” but there was an increase in loneliness and disconnect when people passively browsed content.According to Konnikova, another study at Humboldt-University in Berlin, Germany has suggested that envy, too, increases with Facebook use.“The more time people spent browsing the site, as opposed to actively creating content and engaging with it, the more envious they felt,” Konnikova wrote. “The effect, suggested Hanna Krasnova and her colleagues, was a result of the well-known social psychology phenomena of social comparison.”Ross said that self-image issues for teens and college students are often brought about or heightened through viewing others’ Facebook pages. She cited the work of Sherry Turkle, Abby Rockefeller Mauz? Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, who wrote the book, “Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other.”“As Dr. Turkle points out in some of her work, people manipulate their images on social media to project whatever they wish to, so that the image that is being ‘connected’ to by others may not represent the authentic person behind the image,” Ross said. “If others ‘like’ this false image, it does not necessarily feel like a real connection and leaves people worried that if they were known more fully, they would not be liked or accepted.”12

Interview | Tom "Satch" Sanders

Tom "Satch" Sanders, 13-year Celtic great and eight-time NBA champion, visited Tufts last week as part of Jan Volk's "The Business of Sports: A Study of the NBA" Ex-College class. Satch holds the third most Championship titles in NBA history behind teammates Bill Russell and Sam Jones.

Admissions accepts Universal College App

Due to technical issues with the Common Application (Common App), the Office of Undergraduate Admissions this year decided to extend its Early Decision I deadline and accept the Universal College Application (UCA) in addition to the Common App.The university made these changes in order to help high schools and applicants struggling with the Common App, which previously served as the university’s sole medium for application, according to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin. This year’s Early Decision I (ED1) deadline, originally scheduled for Nov. 1, has been extended a week to Nov. 8, Coffin said. The deadline for Early Decision II and Regular Decision will remain on Jan. 1.Coffin noted that although the extended ED1 deadline will put pressure on the admissions office, he hopes it will help alleviate tension among applicants.The Common App’s glitches began this past summer, when a new version of the application, known as CA4, was launched on Aug. 1. Coffin said that this update immediately posed issues for Admissions. “We weren’t able to import and upload the applications, which is a significant problem,” he said. “We are now able to do that, but it took from August to about three weeks ago for the tech team at Tufts to be able to reprogram [the Common App].”Coffin noted that Tufts was not alone in its problems with the Common App, as almost all of the colleges using the application experienced similar issues. Even with Tufts’ reprogramming efforts, however, high schools and applicants have continued to contact Admissions regarding difficulties with the Common App. “What we are hearing now, with lots of phone-calls and emails, is that the high schools are having a hard time uploading the transcripts, guidance counselor letters and teacher recommendations, and the students are having difficult times with logging on to the Common App, saving their work [and] submitting their application fees,” Coffin said. According to Moira McKinnon, director of College Counseling at Berwick Academy, a private high school in South Berwick, Maine, the Common App’s slow loading times have created anxiety among many students.“The link between Naviance [an online college and career planning tool] and the [Common App], which allows teachers and counselors to send recommendations and transcripts, slowed to the speed of a slug,” McKinnon told the Daily in an email. “Wait times to upload a one-page PDF were 12 hours or more, and then ... it stopped altogether. This obviously was a major problem for anyone trying to meet a Nov. 1 deadline.” Coffin explained that after Princeton announced in early October its decision to accept the UCA as well as the Common App, Tufts began to consider the option as well.“Best case scenario, the Common App is working, and we have a second way for students to apply,” he said. “Worst case scenario, the Common App remains flawed, and we can point to a second place and say: ‘Same application, different vendors.’” The decision to also accept the UCA was relatively easy to make, Coffin said, as the format of the UCA does not differ at all from that of the Common App. The UCA was founded about five years ago, when former Common App programmers created their own alternative college application. Competition between the UCA and the Common App, however, reduced the new application’s impact. Before this year’s issues with the Common App, Harvard University was one of the few colleges that offered applicants the option of using the UCA, according to Coffin. “Historically, not many places have signed up [to the UCA] because the Common App was fine, it was working and there was really no need for a second one,” he said.Admissions is still considering the possibility of using a Tufts-specific application, Coffin said. Prior to the Common App’s launch in the 1970s, every college, including Tufts, utilized its own application. This practice died down when the Common App became successful, leaving Georgetown as the last major school to use its own application. In light of the Common App’s recent failures, however, there may be reason to revive the old Tufts application, he said.“Has technology advanced to the point where college-specific applications are not as onerous as they were [before the Web]?” he said. “I don’t know. I think that’s a big question.” On the other hand, Coffin emphasized that shifting back to school-specific applications would also likely shrink the size of the application pools, which have grown dramatically since the 1980s due to the ease of applying to multiple schools though the Common App. 12

Lex Erath | Sugar and Spice

A few months ago, and for unknown reasons (because no one ever listens to me about anything), a certain male friend of mine - who shall remain nameless - approached me for advice. He first warned me of the intensely depressing nature of his story, and that it was likely to induce tears, fits of depression and strong cravings for chocolate. Thus prepared, I listened to his tale - an epic story of his trials and tribulations wandering, hopelessly lost, in the vast wasteland completely devoid of romance commonly known as The Friendzone.

The dreadful summer hiatus without "Supernatural" is finally over. With "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here," one of the show's best season openers to date, the ninth season has immediately established itself as a must-watch. Though each of the characters' central conflicts is recognized, the episode still leaves room for unexpected twists and great action. From its gorgeous new title card to excellent performances from the main cast and guest stars alike, "Supernatural" is definitely going to be one of this year's best shows.

Tufts Medical Center names Wagner interim CEO

Michael Wagner, president and CEO of the Tufts Medical Center Physicians Organization, was named interim chief medical officer for Tufts Medical Center after his predecessor Eric Beyer resigned on Sept. 17.

Sexual assault taskforce to change misconduct policies at Tufts

Tufts reported 48 sexual assaults to the U.S. Department of Justice in accordance with a grant program for New England universities run by the department, according to a Boston Globe article published in 2010. The university had been receiving $1.3 million in grant funding since 1999 to put toward efforts to improve resources for victims.Last year, a university-wide Sexual Violence Working Group formed to replace Tufts’ Sexual Assault Policy with the current Sexual Misconduct Policy.But when former Sexual Violence Resource Coordinator Elaine Theodore left her position at Tufts a few years ago, no one was hired to replace her. During the 2012-2013 year, there were 63 reported cases of sexual assault in a broad number of categories, according to the data from the Office of Equal Opportunity.In light of these ongoing issues, a sexual assault taskforce has been formed in an attempt to streamline the way that Tufts deals with sexual assault on campus. President Anthony Monaco acts as chair of the taskforce, along with Mary Jeka, senior vice president for university relations and general counsel. Students are involved in the group’s operations as well.“The Task Force on Sexual Misconduct Prevention is designed to ensure that Tufts is doing all it can to effectively combat all forms of sexual misconduct,” Jeka told the Daily in an email. “This includes addressing sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, sex or gender discrimination, stalking and relationship violence as well as sexual assault.”Part of what prompted the taskforce’s formation is that the problems with sexual misconduct and the policies surrounding it have frustrated and angered many Tufts students. Various groups have been developed in order to address these issues, among them Prevention, Awareness and Community at Tufts, Action for Sexual Assault Prevention and the Consent Culture Network, which is an educational offshoot of ASAP. While these groups have hosted many workshops about sexual misconduct, students are still unsatisfied with the sexual misconduct culture and policies at Tufts.On April 29, ASAP sent a letter to the Tufts administration, calling its attention to three key ways in which they failed to address sexual assault security policy for students, which included a lack of access to policies, processes and resources, as well as a lack of support infrastructure and a lack of education about sexual assault. The letter began with the shortcomings of the Tufts sexual assault policy, and then outlined the improvements that could be made to the policies.A response from Monaco expressed that there are insufficient resources at Tufts to accommodate those who lack education about sexual assault and those who are survivors searching for academic and emotional support. His response called for the new sexual assault taskforce.“Such misconduct has no place at Tufts,” Monaco told the Daily in an email. “My goal in convening and chairing the Sexual Misconduct Prevention Taskforce is to ensure that we address this important issue effectively ... to support our community needs.”Jeka noted that creating a group of people ready to tackle such sensitive problems can be difficult, but the taskforce is well on its way.“The taskforce is well-equipped to ensure that Tufts is continuously monitoring our efforts in all these areas, staying ahead of best practices, and making improvements [where necessary],” she said. “Our members include graduate and undergraduate students, faculty and administrators from the Boston, Medford and Somerville and Grafton campuses with a variety of professional expertise and knowledge of individual schools and campus cultures.”Junior Kumar Ramanathan, who was one of the core writers of the letter and is now a member of the taskforce, said that the new sexual assault taskforce has begun the first few of its meetings this semester. The first was to discuss preliminary logistics, he said.Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity Jill Zellmer explained that the group decided to break into working groups to split the workload and divide up the responsibilities. The subgroups, Ramanathan said, include awareness and prevention, resources and adjudication policy.Zellmer said that another focus that the prevention working group factored in was education.“Prevention and education [will] instill greater awareness, education and support programs and train and educate staff and administrators and students,” she said.The resources working group will focus on establishing a more extensive support infrastructure for victims and their friends and supporters, while the policy group will work on revising and publicizing policy as necessary, according to Zellmer.Although the first meeting did not lead to any policy changes, Ramanathan viewed it as a critical step forward, especially in that it gathered enough student representatives from the Group of Six who were interested in contributing.“No one had committed to ... changes at that point. It was just a planning meeting, but it seemed to go very well for us,” Ramanathan said.At the second meeting, the subgroups presented their information to Monaco and other administrators on the committee. The fundamental request was for a streamlined program on sexual assault.12

University launches new threat management program

University officials recently established a new safety system, the Tufts Threat Assessment and Management (TTAM) program, in order to better prevent violence on campus.