University President Lawrence Bacow on Feb. 26 was appointed a member of President Barack Obama's reestablished President's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), formed to provide advice on strengthening the educational capacity of such institutions.
A number of academics speaking over the weekend at Tufts during a two-day symposium "Barack Obama and American Democracy," which gathered leading scholars to assess the implications of President Barack Obama's presidency, expressed their belief that Obama has not sufficiently addressed race issues.
The Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS) last Thursday night raised over $6,000 in support of the Somerville Homeless Coalition (SHC) at the annual Faculty-Waits-On-You Dinner and Auction at 51 Winthrop St.
At five feet tall, nutrition expert Joy Bauer said she has trouble finding shoes high enough to make her the same height as the hosts on NBC's "The Today Show." But with a thriving private nutrition practice and a new cookbook on the way, anyone else might have more trouble filling her shoes than finding them.
In the wake of the devastating earthquake that ravaged Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, the residents of the Tufts Arts Haus have taken an innovative approach to fundraising: putting art at the center of their charitable efforts to support victims of the disaster. The Arts Haus, a special interest house located at 37 Sawyer Ave., will host the gallery show "There's No Place Like Haus" on March 4 at 7 p.m. The event will benefit Partners In Health, a charitable organization that provides health care to the world's poor in Haiti, Peru and Siberia.
At the beginning of every year, self?professed psychics make claims about what is going to occur in the upcoming year. These predictions range from the ridiculous (a major celebrity will be cloned) to the mundane (there will be new medical breakthroughs) to the vague?enough?to?always?be?true (Obama will have a harder time this year than last).
When is a Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate initiative not a TCU Senate initiative?
Last year, the Middlebury men's basketball squad enjoyed one of the best years in the program's 92?year history. The team - which was led by NESCAC Player of the Year Ben Rudin - had cruised to its first conference title in school history and headed into the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 9 in the nation on the strength of a 24?3 record.
I am a New York Knicks fan. I am a LeBron James fan. Naturally, there's basically nothing more I'd like to see in the world than LeBron sporting a Knicks jersey next year.
I am a New York Knicks fan. I am a LeBron James fan. Naturally, there's basically nothing more I'd like to see in the world than LeBron sporting a Knicks jersey next year.
As the newest incarnation of instant Web connectivity, Chatroulette.com has been leaving users in an excited frenzy over a fresh form of cyber exposure. Users beware, though: All who enter do so at their own risk. Five minutes on the site might result in seeing and speaking with anyone from a group of partygoers in Berlin to a silent pornographic image to a lonely student living only a few miles away.
Kansas, Kentucky and Purdue, the former top three teams in the nation, were upset in a matter of 36 hours this past weekend. First, No. 2 Kentucky went down on Saturday afternoon, followed hours later by No. 1 Kansas. Then No. 3 Purdue scored only 44 points on Sunday afternoon and turned in one of its worst performances in recent memory. When all the rubble had settled, Syracuse had established itself as the No. 1 team in the nation. However, with the 2010 NCAA Tournament only weeks away, no team has truly emerged as a favorite.
The NESCAC announced its all?conference selections in men's and women's basketball on Wednesday, and the Jumbos were prominently represented. A look at Tufts' honorees:
Every year, no matter who is playing well or what teams seem to be dominating the NBA, there is always debate over who should win the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for the league.
Tufts alumnus Will Tiao (LA '96) is the writer and star of "Formosa Betrayed," an evocative political thriller that examines conspiracies in the Taiwanese government in the 1980s. Tiao sat down with the Daily to discuss his inspirations for the film, the challenges of bringing an indie film into the public light and the message he hopes to impart on audiences. Rebecca Santiago: What inspired you to write the film? Will Tiao: In a lot of ways, it stems back to my days at Tufts. I was an International Relations major, and I founded the Taiwanese Association for Students at Tufts my senior year, back in 1996. Back then, China had lobbed missiles off the coast of Taiwan because Taiwan was having its first democratic presidential election. I held a panel discussion between four different panelists: one who represented the nationalist government in Taiwan at the time, another the pro-independence viewpoint, another who took a mainland Chinese viewpoint and one for the U.S. side. I kind of let them go at it. We were in an auditorium for 250 people, but like 300 people showed up. It was a really vigorous debate, and I remember thinking, "There is really something here. People are really interested in this." And of course, my parents are from Taiwan, and they were political dissidents. RS: Which parts of the film were based on true-life events? WT: Actually, all of the events and characters are inspired by actual events. There were student spies from Taiwan who were spying on the other Chinese and Taiwanese students, and some of that spying, which was sanctioned by the government of Taiwan, led to murders. Some of those murders were linked specifically to the Chinese mafia and were eventually linked back to the government in Taiwan. So everything was based on actual events, but we dramatized the situation. We took a number of actual events and we combined them. RS: What did you hope to get out of making this film? And what do you hope audiences, and Americans in particular, will take away from it? WT: Well, I think that this issue of Taiwan democracy and independence are something that most Americans are really unfamiliar with, and I think it's very important that they get up to speed. Of all the potential flash points with China, the only one that could potentially lead to military conflict between the United States and China is the issue of Taiwan and Taiwan independence. There's over 1,000 missiles pointed at Taiwan right now, and if Taiwan declares [itself] by name or if countries begin to recognize Taiwan, that could provoke China to military conflict. The United States is bound by what's known as the Taiwan Relations Act to help defend Taiwan if it comes under attack. I think most Americans are completely ignorant of this fact. The film explores these [issues] in an entertaining way, but we hope that at the end of the day, that not only will [audiences] be entertained, but they'll learn something along the way. And hopefully they'll begin to research on their own, because the movie definitely provokes more questions than it provides answers. RS: Is there a reason for naming the movie "Formosa Betrayed" instead of "Taiwan Betrayed?" WT: Yes, actually. Formosa was the name given by Portuguese sailors when they were sailing by Taiwan: "Isla Formosa," beautiful island. Until 1945, Taiwan was actually called Formosa, under Japanese rule. To this day, there are a number of Taiwanese independence activists who would prefer the name Formosa over Taiwan. We thought that it's also kind of evocative because a lot of people don't know what Formosa is — is it a person, is it a woman? You know, what is Formosa? And we liked that. RS: What were some challenges that arose from working within a modest budget? WT: The first major challenge to making this movie was financing. I mean, this is not your typical studio movie, so a modest budget is still a whole lot of money to raise. We did it literally without any studio backing; it was all independent financers who invested in the film. The second challenge was the shoot on two continents, in the States and in Asia; that was difficult because we didn't have as much manpower as we would have liked. The third major issue that we ran into was getting it distributed into movie theaters. We were very much in danger of [going straight to DVD] because we didn't have any big stars — we didn't have Johnny Depp or Jude Law or anything like that. RS: What drove you to play Ming? WT: I originally developed this project for selfish reasons; there aren't a lot of roles for Asian-American actors. So when I came [to Hollywood], I looked at people who I really admired, who had written their way in through [movies like] "Good Will Hunting" (1997) and "Slingblade" (1996). Over the period it took to write the film, my role started getting cut way, way down because I was so focused on producing. [When] my director, Adam Kane, came on board, [he] felt something was missing and came up with the character of Ming. He wanted me to play [him] because he thought we needed someone we could emotionally go with, to feel the Taiwanese journey and to relate to the Taiwanese struggle on a human level. RS: What's in the future for Formosa Films LLC? WT: I definitely trend towards movies that have a politically or socially conscious message, so I'm looking at a number of projects right now that fit that mold. I have a project I'm developing based on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one that's set in Brazil [about] a class struggle, another one that's a cross-cultural love story between a Japanese-American soldier and an Italian woman during World War II. Our hope is that we can become a company that's associated, hopefully, not only with quality material, but also with material that's commercial. But still not what you would see in everyday Hollywood fare.
This coming Sunday is pretty important to us. It will mark the first Sunday of March. It will also be the 41st anniversary of Golda Meir's election as the first female prime minister of Israel and the 160th birthday of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia. Oh, yeah, and the Academy Awards will be presented.
Every morning, they come to each dorm, meticulously cleaning the halls, bathrooms and common rooms. Every day and every night they come to our classrooms, offices, labs, dining halls and libraries to clean up any mess we have left behind. We depend on them to take out our trash and keep Tufts buildings in good condition. Every hour of the day and night, they can be found working somewhere on campus, committed to keeping Tufts clean for the rest of us. These are our janitors, and their hard work deserves our respect.
One of our most basic rights as Americans, and something we all learn in grade school, is that people accused of a crime are innocent until proven guilty. Would it surprise you to learn, therefore, that our president is currently endowed with the authority to order assassinations of Americans abroad for simply being suspected terrorists? At this moment, American citizens abroad who have ties to terrorists may have to fear for their lives — and cannot expect a right to trial or an opportunity to clear their names. This policy began after Sept. 11 — former President George W. Bush gave the CIA (and later the military) the authority to kill any American citizen abroad if they were suspected of being a terrorist, or in any way working to endanger the lives of Americans. President Barack Obama has since maintained that policy, and what surprises me is that most people don't really seem to mind.
