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The Setonian
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Jill Harrison | Traveling Lush

November 2

"OH-SIX!" Not sure I heard that enough last Thursday night. Who am I kidding? The Lush is one of the most enthusiastic OH-SIX-ers out there. And let me tell you, them seniors sure can get down. First things first: this may not be a popular sentiment at this time of year, but the Lush is not particularly festive when it comes to costumes. I do have a healthy appreciation for Halloween, but that appreciation stems from my love for sugar, not that whole costume thing. Lame, I know. With last Thursday's Senior Pub Night approaching, I found myself cursing the Senior Class Council for making it a costumed event - I wasn't particularly keen on wandering the Boylston Alley in a hula outfit. Pretty much everyone I know called me out on my lameness as the night got closer, so I was forced to dress up. Yours truly made a damn fine sheriff if you ask me. Why a sheriff? Well, my roommates/partners-in-crime and I had a stop to make before we made it to the Big Easy. You see, I was the only one in the house who had not yet ridden the mechanical bull at the Liquor Store (conveniently located across the street from the Big Easy) and my roommates insisted that I remedy that situation. The Lush is not one to turn down a challenge, but she's also not one to make an ass of herself by going to a bar clad in country-western getup and riding a mechanical bull while sober, so pregaming was certainly in order. We met up with a gaggle of our fellow seniors over on Ossipee for some flip cup. By the time the busses started leaving from the campus center, we were good to go. A not-so-quick stop at the ATM held us up for a bit, but on the bright side, we found Waldo - or at least some kid dressed like him. The bus was all abuzz with excitement and song, our repertoire ranging from "Sweet Caroline" to the familiar refrain of "T-U-F-T-S, T-U-F-T-S." The ride grew longer, and the anticipation was rising. Would we all look stupid getting off a school bus in costume in downtown Boston? Would the Lush last a respectable amount of time on the bull? Who broke my sheriff badge? We finally pulled up and got off the bus with a quick "Sorry our class is so obnoxious" to the bus driver. We ran past the Big Easy, down the Alley and looked up only to find that the "bull bar" was closed indefinitely! Our spirits deflated, we got in line for the ID check. Luckily, it went about 800 times faster than last month at the Hong Kong. Since the bar was pretty much empty at this point, we knew only one thing could cure our no-bull sorrows: shots, of course. The shots definitely helped, but the price tag sure as hell didn't. They were good shots, but not six-bucks-good. The good news for the Lush, however, was that after shelling out the big bucks for the first round, my friends owed me and I was paid back in alcohol for the rest of the night. The shots kicked in and more seniors began to arrive. We began to forget about the bull and embrace the idea of a bar crammed with the Class of 2006. What could be better than three hours spent bumping into kids you haven't seen since freshman orientation? Turns out, very little. This senior pub night was far superior to the previous one. The bar was much bigger, and they were able to accommodate twice as many people, which, to my mind, is what pub night should be all about - getting as many wasted seniors in one place as possible (because there is almost nothing funnier than watching people forced to talk to people they hooked up with freshman year and never spoke to again). Even though someone stole my gun and my cowboy hat got stepped on, I was very thankful that I was convinced to dress up. Turns out seniors are seriously into Halloween. We had girl scouts, Scooby Doo, a whole bunch of Mexicans, various athletes and, of course, any number of variations on the old Slutty fill-in-the-blank - way to go ladies of '06. Special mention goes to Mr. David Menis, who I promised a shout-out to for donning a suit and portraying "Himself in a Year," even though it made the Lush realize that a year from now she will probably be standing in the unemployment line. To anyone else I "promised" a shout out to: Never trust a drunken promise. All things considered, and despite the ridiculous drink prices, this Pub Night was much better than the first. The DJ was better and everyone danced the night away - I even saw a couple of people dance their way right off the stage. The large amount of making out going on also clearly proved that, a) senior year is not too late to make new friends, and b) the '06 Jumbos have a lot of love to give. As things wound down, we tracked down any friends who had wandered astray and followed the trail of lost costume parts to the waiting busses. Despite a few attempts at starting chants of the ever-popular "OH-SIX!", the ride was fairly subdued. My fellow seniors and I had grown sleepy. I confess I had little interest in attending my 9:30 a.m. class (or my 10:30 a.m. one for that matter), but the Lush is a class act. I made it to both... and so did my large water bottle and a handful of Ibuprofen.Jillian Harrison is double majoring in history and archaeology. She can be reached via e-mail at Jillian.Harrison@tufts.edu, just not on Friday, Saturday and Tuesday nights.

The Setonian
News

Weekender Feature | Roll over, Beethoven: The Bell Orchestre is in town

November 2

As any child with progressive, well-meaning parents knows, there is one hour per week whose anticipation rivals only the picking of dodgeball teams in terms of dread: the mandatory music lesson. By now, beyond the occasional plucking out of "Fur Elise" on the family piano at Christmastime, the average one-time musical prodigy has let his training fall to the wayside. It started early: The first time you heard your cousin's Red Hot Chili Peppers tape blasting out of her pink Casio boombox, your parents knew their dreams of raising the next Chopin were doomed. Back in the heady years of the '90s, once a kid discovered rock and roll (or Salt-n-Pepa), the classical composers were as lost to her as the friend she Red-Rovered across the playground. Luckily for today's concerned parents, in 2005 a love for rock music doesn't mean shoving the sheet music and metronome among the dust bunnies under the bed. Popular artists have started to incorporate traditional styles with increasing frequency. One going to see Sigur Ros next week will find himself in Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall, listening to haunting melodies every bit as effective as one of Puccini's arias; fans of the White Stripes heard them hammer out stripped-down blues tunes in Boston's Opera House this September. The latest band to throw their chapeau into the ring of traditional musical stylings is Montreal's Bell Orchestre. In an interview with the Daily, bass player Richard Reed Parry mused on this trend toward the past: "I guess if the majority of popular and art music moves far enough away from traditional music, it has to move back towards it eventually, and it's the kind of thing where if a few people start bringing the older, traditional influences back to the table during a time when those sounds are conspicuously absent, then it can catch on really quickly and it takes on this appearance of being a revivalist thing, or a movement of some sort." Fittingly, this group of modern classicists is performing this Friday at one of the nation's most revered art centers: Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. The MFA's mix of antique and contemporary pieces serves as a perfect parallel to this classical band, which formed in a less traditional, more natural way than most. The Bell Orchestre Catches Some Arcade Fire The Bell Orchestre originally came together in 1999. Parry met violinist Sarah Neufeld when they were in school together. Enlisting the drum power of Stefan Schneider, the group began to collaborate with other artists, accompanying modern dance shows, films, and even puppet theater. After a few performances, the trio added more players: Pietro Amato on French horn and Kaveh Nabatan on trumpet. It wasn't until the incorporation of the horns that the classical collective really began to see themselves as a band and came up with their name. Does any of this ring a bell? It should: Parry and Neufeld are also members of the immensely popular rock band the Arcade Fire. While the Arcade Fire has gained more media attention, however, Parry insists that the Bell Orchestre is just as important and is indeed "a real band, a 'full time' band." Though the Orchestre has been around for six years, they didn't record their first album, "Recording a Tape the Colour of Light," until about a year and a half ago. This delay is due in part, Parry admits, to the "general madness" of the Arcade Fire success but is also due to the fact that the group was never interested in being "a normal band, one that makes records and tours." Instead, he says, they started to "just make music to make music." "We didn't really start out with the aim of making records - as a group we didn't really share the same reference points or musical goals at first, but then the music started to really reveal itself, and gather momentum. I guess we waited until an album needed to be made, rather than just trying to get any old thing together and put it out into the world." Though the final decision to record an album would seem to align the band with more commercial rock acts than with traditional orchestral ensembles, Parry insists that, despite the band's moments of intensity, it is not a rock group: "I guess I just wanted to have a band that from the get go didn't have to try hard to get away from sounding like normal rock music - something that was by nature far more delicate, but that could rock really hard as well - equal parts fragility and tension and heaviness and beauty and rawness and melodies." Getting Classy One of the marks of the album's (and, indeed, the band's) uniqueness is its sound effects: for "Recording a Tunnel (The Horns Play Underneath the Canal)," the band did just what the song's title suggests, camping out under a real tunnel to record the noise of rushing water. Citing this willingness to work outside the conventions of modern rock, Schneider, in a separate interview with the Daily, corroborated Parry's image of the group as atypical in today's musical landscape: "We're super open for different settings, not settings like those of a traditional rock band. It's easier in those situations to be more creative." According to Schneider, who described his setup as "a traditional drum set plus toys" which include pots and chains, the band's openness is also visible in its collaborative process. "Everything we compose is collectively composed," he said. "No one really brings in music. That's one thing that makes our band have a 'band' sound, that everyone contributes freely." Each member, Schneider went on to say, offers suggestions, which take a variety of forms. "Sometimes [they're] detailed suggestions, but sometimes just more of an overall conceptual idea or a feeling, an emotional idea of where we want the song to be, dictates the shape that each instrument will take." Listening to "Recording a Tape the Colour of Light," one can begin to see the music in terms of emotional vignettes. The horns of "Nuevo," for example, are exotic and regal, like the fanfare of a king entering his palace. "Les Lumi???s, Part 2," with its violently sawing strings and its dry, metallic percussion that sounds like a cook frantically throwing handfuls of rice into an empty pot, should be the soundtrack to a heist sequence in an artsy foreign film. In fact, all of "Recording a Tape" lends itself to this kind of cinematic interpretation: In "Salvatore Amato," the heavens open up as the angels grab mallets and attack the glockenspiel. "Les Lumi??"?s, Part 1" is a farmhouse in the morning, with bells shaking around in empty milk bottles, strings withering up in the heat of the rising sun, and horns braying like horses. In "Throw It On the Fire," firefighters knock over a rack of helmets in their haste to rescue the squealing dolphins and whales (again, the horns) from their burning Sea World. The complexity of "Throw It On the Fire" is a good way to revisit the band's unique sound effects: the song features the roaring rise and fall of a siren. One might wonder how the band will recreate the track without pulling the MFA's fire alarm, but Schneider revealed that the effect is actually created by Amato's French horn. Staying Classy Though the Bell Orchestre's sound is primarily faithful to their live performance, there are a few things they can't physically recreate on stage. One difference between the album and the live show, Schneider said, "is that there might be some overdubs. It's doubled in the bell parts, because live we don't have enough hands [to play all of them.]" He also conceded another limitation of the MFA's Remis Auditorium: "Obviously we're not bringing a tunnel in with us, but we have some of it recorded." Despite some pangs of disappointment at the MFA's inability to host an actual canal inside its walls, both Parry and Schneider are excited to be playing in this slightly unorthodox arena. Schneider emphasized the band's desire to play in smaller venues (their first performance was in a Montreal yoga studio): "We like nice acoustic spaces that are more intimate because the music we play is intimate and we like to bring people in and take them on a journey with our music. The whole environment is a big part of that." Parry agreed, emphasizing the emotional weight of the band's show: "The museum and gallery shows are great because there's a sort of undivided attention that we get that I think can be really rewarding, for band and audience alike... It just gives this whole richness of context to the whole thing... It's pretty great when you wander out of a show and you're right in the middle of somewhere beautiful or interesting. I've had really great experiences like that, where a show just completely floors me and then I go outside and there's a huge beautiful old church all lit up. It's so special when sometimes a place can really just tie a musical or emotional experience to something visually memorable."

The Setonian
News

U.S. must address debt, genocide, AIDS in Africa

November 2

A civil society activist, a policy analyst and two proponents of debt relief for Africa spoke about the state of U.S.-Africa relations to about 30 students Wednesday. The discussion, held in Barnum Hall, was sponsored by the Institute for Global Leadership and co-sponsored by various other groups, including Pangea, Tufts Uganda Internship Program and the University College for Citizenship and Public Service. Wahu Kaara, Ecumenical Coordinator for the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, opened her remarks by analyzing the image many people have of the African continent. "There is the image of Africa that never reaches here," she said. "Africa is not by accident and everything that comes from Africa is valuable, even suffering." Kaara went on to discuss the balance of power in today's global political scene. The powerful dominate the powerless and on their own terms. "The G8 manages and controls everything; only eight white men rule the world," she said. "And in order to maintain this order they have organizations like the WTO, the World Bank and the IMF." She closed her remarks by calling for African self-determination and for the cancellation of all international debt owed by African nations. "We don't want to die for Africa, we want to live for Africa," she said. "That is why we want debt cancelled now - with no conditions." Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, General Secretary of the Global Pan African Movement, spoke about the role of young people in changing the dialogue and improving conditions worldwide. He said today's undergraduates do not share the same viewpoint as the youth of 25 years ago. "The youth today have an idealized view, where they think they can change the world," he said. "Back 25 years ago there was no CNN, South African was under Apartheid, Vietnam, El Salvador, Nicaragua ... today is different." He called on U.S. citizens to counter the power of the American government and to keep American imperialism in check. "I'm not so sure you know what your government is doing in your name," he said. Abdul-Raheen criticized the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief - $15 billion dollars to combat the disease in Africa, Asia and the Carribbean. He called for a reframing of U.S.-Africa relations. "You can stop your government from policies that hurt Africa," Abdul-Raheem said. He called upon all Americans to "find their inner Rosa Parks" and stand up against a system "that wants you to believe there is nothing you can do." Mvuselelo Ngcoya, who works in the policy analysis department of the non-governmental organization Africa Action, opened his remarks by commenting on the genocide currently taking place in Darfur, Sudan. Ngcoya acknowledged that President George W. Bush called the situation genocide but then derailed the administration for failing to act to stop it. He went on to comment on the administration's handling of the HIV/AIDS pandemic of which Africa is bearing the brunt. "The president announced recently $7.4 billion for a flu pandemic that is not even in existence, yet we have AIDS around since the 80's killing millions," Ngcoya said. "This is the kind of world we live in, where U.S. lives might be in danger or where blacks have been dying for years." Marie Brill, the Africa Action Director for Public Education and Mobilization, spoke about how the genocide in Darfur, debt cancellation, and HIV/AIDS are the serious dilemmas that the world needs to deal with. "HIV/AIDS is the greatest threat to this world, greater than terrorism," she said. Calling for radical changes in the global power structure, all the speakers were critical of the White House's handling of U.S.-Africa issues, especially HIV/AIDS and Darfur. "Clinton turned his back on Rwanda and now Bush has declared Darfur genocide but has done nothing about it," Brill said. Though all the speakers were critical of the Bush Administration, the Institute for Global Leadership "prides itself in bringing speakers of all political persuasions to campus," according to Erica Levine (LA '04), who works for the institute. Freshman Morissa Sobelson, who spent last March doing an independent study in Kenya on AIDS and children, agreed with the panel's assessment of America's aid to HIV-stricken African nations. "We are in a serious crisis and the world is standing by and doing nothing," Sobelson said. "It is just not enough to have a substantial affect. In turn the global instability it is creating is enormous." Sobelson also agreed with the panelists' demand for action from the U.S. and its allies in Darfur regardless of national interests. "It is a test of our humanity, not a matter of our economic or political best interest," she said.

The Setonian
News

CD Review | These Furnaces have gone cold

November 1

After playing together just five years, brother and sister duo Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger's wacky rock outfit, the Fiery Furnaces, is already one of the most accomplished bands on the indie scene. In that time, they have released three albums: 2003's groundbreaking "Gallowsbird's Bark," the quirky sophomore follow-up "Blueberry Boat" (2004), and a collection of the Furnaces' B-sides and UK singles entitled, "EP" (2005). They've built a reputation of creating originally spastic music and have toured with such high-profile bands as Franz Ferdinand, Spoon, and the Shins. Their latest release, "Rehearsing My Choir" is a collaboration with the Friedbergers' grandmother, Olga Sarantos, the ex-choir director of a Greek Orthodox Church near the band's home in Oak Park, Illinois. From a social history standpoint, the album's premise is intriguing: a series of duets with grandma concerning life in Chicago throughout the twentieth century. While Matthew toils away on acoustic guitar, organ, and harpsichord, Sarantos and Eleanor lavish the audience with detailed accounts of the former's days as a youth in the Windy City. From a band like the Fiery Furnaces - one that has made its name by fashioning extravagant music - an album that focuses on narration itself does not make sense. Seasoned fans will anxiously wait for the album to pick up, but the Furnaces' new album is a uniformly drawn-out effort and just doesn't deliver. Sarantos' voice is wholly annoying; her singing (more aptly described as speaking) is monotonous and monosyllabic. Eleanor, supposedly taking on the persona of her grandmother's younger self, sings unemphatically and adds to the ennui of the record. Instrumentation is likewise sparse. Many songs consist solely of a subdued piano or organ to accompany Sarantos' droning voice. Rarely is there guitar, and when there is, it's usually a soft acoustic. Only a few times do the Furnaces break out of their newfound penchant for slow-core and pay homage to their spaz-rock beginnings with a distortion-heavy guitar and wacky synth. In "The Wayward Granddaughter," the Furnaces do so by flaunting a disco dance beat, jaw harp, and harpsichord that create a catchy and innovative sound. But just as they finally pick up the tempo, they suddenly revert back to Sarantos' dull monologues. In comparison with earlier albums, "Rehearsing My Choir" is infinitely tame. Old Furnaces tunes like "Tropical-Iceland" and "Chris Michaels" were full of sound, employing varied instrumentation and spastic noodling. Unfortunately, there is nothing as elaborate on this album. The Furnaces try their best to salvage some shred of musicality in "Rehearsing My Choir" by sloppily attempting to include Matthew's instrumental fiddlings throughout the tracks. Most of time, though, the music merely reflects the sentiment of the narrative - a melancholy organ connotes nostalgia for the past in "We Wrote Letters Everyday," and pensive piano recreates a solemn feel in the funereal "Does It Remind You of When." This just proves that the social history aspect of the album is more important than the music; the music embellishes the narrative instead of the other way around. "Rehearsing My Choir" does not live up to the Furnaces' inventive musicality on their earlier albums. Quite simply, it fails to demonstrate the creative genius made the band successful in the first place. Instead, the Fiery Furnaces de-emphasize their music to accent the histories of their grandmother's life. To totally rip this album wouldn't do it justice. It's a creative idea, but as a record it falls short. Compared to their earlier releases, "Rehearsing My Choir" is simply boring.

The Setonian
News

For laundry, one account to rule them all

November 1

Starting next semester students will have less to worry about when they do their laundry. During winter break, laundry machines in dorms will be rewired so students can use Points Plus to pay for laundry expenses. This means that students will swipe the thick stripe on the back of their identification cards to do laundry, rather than the thin vending stripe they currently use. Tufts Community Union Historian Ed Kalafarski said the vending stripe on students' ID cards is called a junk stripe, and that money is currently "physically put on the card." In the new system, however, all transactions will be done online. "Starting with laundry, we're migrating from offline to online," Patricia Klos, Director of Dining and Business Services, said. The new laundry pay machines will have online readers that will register payments on an online database, Klos said, eliminating a need for intermediate wiring - the current machines located in Dewick-MacPhie and the campus center which students use to transfer Points Plus or cash to vending dollars. Students will be able to transfer their Vending Points to Points Plus for free, Kalafarski said. Points Plus can currently be transferred to Vending Points, but not the other way around. Under the current system, if an ID card is lost, its Vending Points are lost as well. Adding Vending Points to the central Points Plus database will provide a record of the amount on the card. Kalafarski said the new system for laundry is the first step in updating the points system. "Clearly, there's more that can be done," he said. "The next step is letting people add points online." Klos said Dining Services has looked into an online system. "We would love to be able to offer that," she said. The project is in an interim stage of planning, and no system would be available next semester. Installing a system that would allow students and parents to add points online using a credit card is more complex than the change in laundry payment, Klos said, because it will require cooperation between the Bursar for billing and finance purposes and personnel at Tufts Computing and Communications Services. The Student Information System - which allows students to register for courses, request transcripts and view their bursar bill - is not designed to provide this type of service and would require custom programming, Klos said. Dining Services is looking to see whether a third party would be more appropriate. She cited the software company, JSA Technologies as a possible candidate. The program offered by JSA is called Student Link. The online service allows students and parents to pay for points online using a credit card, check balances at any time, and view a transaction record. "Basically, it's a web interface," Andrew Ripley, a sales representative of the company said. "We would connect to your server and manage all the transactions from here in Texas," he said. The service cuts costs for universities by eliminating most billing expenses, Ripley said. Harvard University, Ohio State University and the University of Southern California use Student Link. Klos said adopting a system would be a complex issue. "It's not just the cost, which would be tens of thousands of dollars," she said. "But different universities have different approaches to security." Kalafarski, who has been working on the project for over a year, originally described the new system as a "unified points system." Since Dining Dollars will still be kept separate, Klos called the compromise a "simplified points system." Dining Services does not plan to combine Dining Dollars with Points Plus. The University needs to keep Dining Dollars separate, Klos said, to ensure enough money goes to Dining Services. With a unified points system, students would not have to commit a certain amount of money to dining, which would make operating the Commons, Hotung Caf?©¬ Brown and Brew and the two dining halls more difficult. Dining Dollars are also exempt from the Massachusetts meals tax - a five percent tax on food and beverages. Students who pay for meals on campus with cash have to pay tax. Sophomore Jake Weitzen said he appreciated the change. "It's much more convenient to have everything on one stripe," he said. A new name for the Points Plus account is also being discussed. Kalafarski suggested Jumbo Bucks but he said he is open to other ideas. Kalafarski said he was optimistic about future improvements. "The system was horrendously complex," he said. "Clearly it needs to be upgraded. The Class of 2010 should never have to know we had fifteen different kinds of points."

The Setonian
News

Fear rules from the battlefield to halls of power

November 1

Journalist Mort Rosenblum and U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee investigator Jack Blum spoke to about 20 students Tuesday on the political climate in the United States and the state of the news media. The program - held in Tisch Library - was sponsored by the Institute of Global Leadership as part of its Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) program. Rosenblum began his talk by sharing some memories of reporting during major historical moments. He covered the collapse of the Iron Curtain over Eastern Europe and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. He also served as the editor-in-chief of the International Herald Tribune from 1979-1981. He started his international reporting during the Biafra succession from Nigeria in 1960 and continued to cover conflicts up through the invasion of Afghanistan by U.S.-led coalition forces following Sept. 11, 2001. He also addressed the difficulties of reporting on foreign conflicts. "Reporting today is really dangerous," Rosenblum said. "It is hard to write a story when you are dead." Blum, who served as special council to Senator John Kerry, said the next big issue to unfold on the global scene would be a national debate in the United States. "We haven't had a real political dialogue here for a long time," he said. American politicians are too concerned with being reelected to talk about important issues, he said, and they often spend their time assigning blame. The EPIIC theme this year is Politics of Fear. Rosenblum and Blum discussed cases in which fear has dominated the public. "Being a tyrant is an art," Rosenblum said. "Fear is a thin veneer; once it cracks it falls apart really fast." According to Blum, the concept of sovereignty needs to be redefined to forbid human rights violations on the grounds of a country's internal policies. "We've reached an interesting pass today on this planet, where we have over 180 sovereign states, some small,...some huge, but all are equally sovereign," he said. "We've got to reconsider global norms; you don't kill your own citizens, you don't enslave other people." When the floor was opened up to questions, Rosenblum and Blum discussed the building of a democratic state in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, as well as media coverage of the war and its aftermath. "There are very important stories in Iraq that were never written," Blum said. Rosenblum said this was caused, in part, by the Pentagon's system of embedded journalists, where most American reporters in Iraq during the beginning of the war were attached to a unit of the military. "We're not getting a clear picture from Iraq for a number of reasons and one of them is access," he said. "We had much more access in the first Gulf War." Rosenblum and Blum said the sound bite culture misses out on important international stories. "We have a national disease in the United States," Blum said. "It is Attention Deficit Disorder. Talking heads are on TV for 30 seconds tops and then they are gone; there isn't any time for anything before it moves along." Rosenblum said newspapers are the best source for information. "I want somebody to sort out the garbage - that is why I buy newspapers," he said. "A newspaper is an index of information, while a blog can be written by someone in his mom's kitchen in Des Moines. How are you going to evaluate those sources?"

The Setonian
News

Who is Hillary Clinton?

November 1

Who is Hillary Clinton? If she has anything to say about it, your answer will be that she's a hard-working American woman that understands the needs of working mothers and children. She is a loving mother and wife, who could pass the federal budget in the afternoon and prepare a lovely family meal in the evening. Her whole life she has been destined to be a US Senator, and yes, President of the United States. I'm sure many of you are nodding your heads as you read this, maybe even practicing your 2008 campaign battle cry. (See: Howard Dean.) Is this the real Hillary, or is it what she wants you to believe? When Hillary announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate, the banner adorning her stage did not read Hillary Clinton or Hillary Rodham. No, this speech marked the emergence of a new persona: HILLARY. So who is HILLARY? Or better yet, who does HILLARY claim to be? She claims she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, the famous New Zealand born explorer that conquered Mount Everest. The problem is that Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Everest in 1953. When HILLARY was born, five years earlier, Sir Edmund Hillary was a humble beekeeper, well known perhaps to the people in his village, but certainly not to the world. In HILLARY's book, "Living History," she writes, "We use the kitchen (in the Residence) for breakfast every day and for lots of dinners when we are not entertaining. My husband might come home from a golf game and I throw something together for him." This is HILLARY's attempt to relate to the average working mother. She desperately wants you to believe that she understands the needs and concerns of working women. Dick Morris refutes this in "Rewriting History," when he describes how the White House chef wouldn't allow HILLARY to prepare her own meals and often rushed to prepare special food upon request. Perhaps they were concerned that HILLARY would re-enact the war of 1812 and burn the place to the ground. Then there is HILLARY, the concerned mother who can relate to all the families affected by Sept. 11, 2001. She claimed Chelsea was in lower Manhattan that fateful morning, taking a jog when the towers were struck. Chelsea herself refuted the story saying that she was miles north of Ground Zero, in her friend's apartment when she heard the news. So what? Who cares about these small details? Well, the last two Presidential elections have shown that the American people care. When you're a U.S. Senator, or a Congressman, it's not a necessity to have a public persona or a strong personal connection to the voters. Could you name the spouses and children of your U.S. Senators and Representative? When running for President you need to have a personality that the voters can relate to as if you were their neighbor or friend. In the 2000 election, Al Gore - the self-proclaimed inventor of the Internet - was so inconsistent in the three televised debates that you wondered if he forgot to take his lithium. One debate he was a bully, interrupting Bush and scoffing at his responses. The next debate he was calmer, laughing playfully at his opponents remarks. Americans couldn't grasp the real Al Gore. Then in 2004, John Kerry single-handedly revived the flip-flop industry. Was it not painful to watch as he awkwardly adorned his Red Sox hat in his living room, watching the ALCS, proclaiming that his favorite player was Manny Ortez? (No, I did not spell that wrong, and yes, that is now the name of my brother's cat.) He bragged of his accomplishments in Vietnam, but was on record saying that he and others committed war crimes during the conflict. Kerry was a walking contradiction, and never accurately introduced himself to the American people. HILLARY's campaign for the Senate in 2000 could have illustrated that her public image was contrived, calculated, and ultimately fake. New York had the choice of either the ultimate New Yorker, Mayor Guiliani, or the ultimate carpetbagger, HILLARY. Luckily for HILLARY, this epic battle never took place due to Guiliani being diagnosed with cancer. Her new opponent, Rick Lazio, looked more like a hung over backup quarterback then a viable candidate for the U.S. Senate. New York - and America - never got the chance to peel back the layers of HILLARY and expose her paranoid, vengeful and self-righteous nature. So as the 2008 campaign begins, I admit, Hillary looks like a good candidate. She'll mostly likely win the Democratic nomination. Then the hard part begins. Campaign managers will have to decide if they mention, invite or involve Bill. Which sports teams should she support? How did she come to get her name? What is her family life? What does she think of Monica Lewinsky? Has she committed financial crimes? Is she really a successful trial lawyer? When you are the First Lady, or even a senator, you can be insulated from these questions. When you are a Presidential candidate, the gloves come off. Just ask her husband, he knows all about it.Todd Bohannon is a senior majoring in Economics.

The Setonian
News

Democrats spineless no more?

November 1

When Dick Cheney's erstwhile chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, was indicted on Friday for lying and generally obstructing the federal investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's name, old questions about the Bush administration's intelligence massaging activities in late 2002 and early 2003 boiled to the fore of American political consciousness. Cheney and Karl Rove (named ominously only as "Official A"), while not yet indicted for any criminal acts, were mentioned in the indictment and portrayed as working to include questionable intelligence in the administration's case for war. This new public consciousness of the administration's less-than-honest activities during the build up to the invasion of Iraq had immediate consequences on Tuesday in the U.S. Senate. As popular opinion turns further against the war in Iraq and the public begins to question the ethics and honesty of those who work in the White House (see the Oct. 30 Washington Post-ABC News poll), Washington Democrats - traditionally cowardly creatures of comfort - seem to have finally grown a collective pair. On Tuesday, Harry Reid shut down the U.S. Senate for two hours by forcing it into a closed session to discuss Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts' lengthy delay in issuing the promised report on the administration's manipulation of intelligence in support of the Iraq War. Reid's actions resulted in the creation of a bipartisan panel to investigate the delay, and he has promised to keep forcing the Senate into closed session if Republicans continue to lollygag with regard to what is expected to be a politically damning report. Reid's actions also coincide with new information coming out of Italy regarding the very content of the expected report. It appears that the forged documents which were the basis of Bush's declaration in Jan. 2003, which said that Saddam Hussein had sought Uranium from Niger, were passed to Washington by a now-indicted (on separate espionage charges) Pentagon staffer named Larry Franklin and a neoconservative activist named Michael Ledeen. Administration officials were aware of casual and unauthorized meetings between the two Americans, Italian intelligence officials and a previously discredited CIA source. That such fragile and clearly untrustworthy intelligence was allowed to become a part of the official narrative of Saddam Hussein as supreme threat to American security only reinforces the now popular view that Americans were bamboozled in 2002 and 2003. The result was a foreign policy disaster of untold proportions. The significance of Tuesday's events in the U.S. Senate cannot be overstated. With an epic ideological fight brewing over the Neanderthal nominated Monday to the Supreme Court, Democrats must arm themselves for political warfare. The White House has apparently surrendered to the far-right wing of the Republican Party even as its support among Americans who actually care about ethics, honesty and effective government dwindles. In the wake of a succession of scandals and massive failures, President Bush is finally losing his carefully crafted image as a strong and effective leader. But the country is now more than ever in need of real leaders. Bill Frist accused Senator Reid on Tuesday of hijacking the U.S. Senate. A more accurate vehicle-related analogy is that of a friend not letting a friend drive drunk with power.

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Ben Swasey | From Way Downtown

November 1

Six decades ago, Boston was the home of a genuine hero; both in the batter's box at Fenway Park and as a pilot in World War II. The Boston sports scene may already have a Teddy Ballgame, but there's a new Tedy in town who is equally heroic. This past Sunday night, Tedy Bruschi returned to his position as linebacker for the New England Patriots just over eight months after suffering a stroke. In an inspiring feat of determination, Bruschi showed the sell-out crowd at Gillette Stadium what it means to overcome the odds by completing the long road back from hospital bed to the gridiron. Bruschi didn't just show up, either. He started, made the first tackle of the game, participated in 64 of the defense's 77 plays and resumed his menial role on special teams, covering punts and kick returns. Bruschi's saga began in February, just three days after his first Pro Bowl and weeks after he helped lead the Patriots to their third Super Bowl victory in four years. After the stroke, Bruschi couldn't walk and his vision was damaged. As he regained movement, he knew he would be able to exit the hospital on his own accord, but what about resuming his career? I can remember watching footage of him leaving the hospital. He was walking awkwardly and there was a look of concern on his face. My first thought was that he was done, and so was our dynasty. Now, Bruschi is not the best or most talented player on the Patriots, but he is my favorite. He is an emotional leader and a hard-worker. He doesn't put up overwhelming statistics, but he does the intangible things that help his team win. Last year, for example, his 120 tackles, four sacks, and three interceptions showed he can do a little bit of everything. Also, if he can't make a tackle, Bruschi will simply use his body to clog up a rusher's gap, and he rarely is out of position. Contrast this to his early season replacement, Monty Beisel: a speedy linebacker who hits holes hard trying to go for the big tackle but frequently overruns his target or picks the wrong gap completely. And, of course, Bruschi has a knack for the big plays. One of his signature moves is to fake a pass rush and then to drop back into coverage, staying low behind his linemen so the opposing quarterback can't see him. In this manner, he lays in hiding, baiting the passer, before pouncing on a pass over the middle. Peyton Manning knows what I'm talking about. Bruschi was also the architect of my favorite play of all time. Last year against the Colts, Indy halfback Edgerrin James caught a ball over the middle, where he was met by the Patriots' Number 54. Instead of simply going for the tackle, Bruschi ripped the ball out of Edge's hands while taking him down, turning an ordinary play into a big turnover. To me, it epitomized football, showing that toughness, desire, and smarts are keys to being successful. But back in February, Patriots fans thought there would be no more plays like this. Bruschi had surgery to repair a small hole in his heart, began rehabilitating, and announced he would sit out this season. Over time, however, rumors of an early return surfaced, as Bruschi could be seen on the sidelines of home games, and it was reported that he was keeping in shape. He visited more than ten doctors, and their consensus opinion was that he could return and that sitting out a year would not help or ensure his health. So exactly two weeks ago, on Oct. 19, Tedy Bruschi returned to Patriots' practice. Sunday night, I was pumped. There was electricity in the stadium that could be felt through the television. My favorite player from a dynasty was returning to the field. He may not be the MVP, but he's an important piece. It's like the NBA's Chicago Bulls of the 1990's suddenly getting back Horace Grant, a one-time All-Star and, at the time, one of the league's best defensive players. The first few plays, I couldn't help but watch him; he deserved to be out there. Still, although I knew he would help the Patriots' many current defensive problems, I also had realistic expectations. Bruschi is just one player out of eleven, and he can't make up for the many injuries that have depleted the unit, especially in the secondary. His return did not affect the defensive performance against the Bills, as Buffalo gained nearly 400 total yards - 147 on the ground - but remember, he had only ten days, not months, of practice. Even so, by simply being out there, Bruschi's story is one of triumph, and it was fitting that the Patriots should also come back to win. After the game, Bruschi spoke about the importance of not feeling sorry for yourself and getting back to living your life when adversity strikes. He spoke about mental toughness, an area he has tremendous pride in. Sure, he may lead champions and make great plays on the field, but it's his return to the game that makes Bruschi truly heroic.

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Volleyball | Jumbos sweep NESCAC Weekend to end regular season

November 1

After defeating Bowdoin on Wednesday, the volleyball team found itself trailing NESCAC-leading Colby by half a game going into the final NESCAC Weekend at Wesleyan. To earn home-court advantage, the Jumbos needed to win big and receive some help in the form of a slip from the Mules. The Jumbos took care of their business, winning the final two matches of the regular season 3-0. Unfortunately, so did Colby, winning its final three matches, including a 3-2 win over Williams. With the victories, the Mules improved to 10-0 on the season, earning the top seed and home-court advantage for the NESCAC Tournament. To wrestle away the top spot, the Jumbos would have needed Colby to falter twice this weekend, an unlikely task as Colby was scheduled to play winless Hamilton. "Colby's been so strong and consistent all year, so in all honesty I didn't expect them to lose," coach Cora Thompson said. While the Jumbos paid attention to the Colby matches, they didn't get caught scoreboard-watching. "We would know who was facing Colby and we would hope they would win, but honestly, we were not watching that closely," freshman Kaitlin O'Reilly said. "We were more concerned with our playing and winning our critical match-ups." With the Mules taking care of the top seed, the Jumbos secured the second seed in the tournament with a 9-1 record by cruising past Bowdoin, Trinity and Wesleyan in their final three matches of the regular season. "We played well," Thompson said. "We've been mixing it up quite a bit lately. So I thought in general, we had a better sense of consistency, which is good going into the playoffs." The Jumbos achieved that consistency, despite playing without junior outside hitter Kelli Harrison, who missed another weekend with a concussion. On Saturday afternoon, it was junior Dana Fleisher who stepped up on the outside in Harrison's absence to lead the team to a 3-0 victory over the Wesleyan Cardinals. Fleisher collected eight kills to tie for the Jumbo lead with sophomore Katie Wysham, who had four block assists to go along with her eight kills. O'Reilly also had a strong match, recording 29 assists, 10 digs, a kill and three aces. "Wesleyan is a tough team," Thompson said. "They are very emotional. They go on runs, getting high and low. We did a good job of staying stable with our play." After a tight 30-28 opener, Tufts closed out the match with two 30-24 games, dropping the Cardinals to 3-7 in the NESCAC. The match was a return to NESCAC play for the Jumbos after last weekend's trip to Atlanta for the Emory National Invitational, where the intensity of play was noticeably higher. "The pace of the game felt a lot slower after playing Emory and Millikin," O'Reilly said. The win came on the heels of a Friday night 3-0 victory over Trinity. The Jumbos won by an almost identical score, winning the first game 30-26 before closing out the Bantams with two 30-24 decisions. "That was important for us to come off that long bus ride to Connecticut and be ready to go," Thompson said. This time it was sophomore Kay Lutostanski spearheading the Jumbo offense with 13 kills. Wysham had another solid game with 10 kills, three assists and four blocks. Freshman Natalie Goldstein led a pack of four Jumbos with double digit kills with 19. Goldstein returned to the libero position after missing Wednesday's Bowdoin matchup due to a class conflict. Her absence left the team without three players, as Harrison and sophomore Cecilia Allende continued to sit out due to injury. "Our goal was to go up there and not skip a beat, even though we were missing players," Thompson said. Sophomore Stephanie Viola replaced Goldstein at libero, and freshman Caitlin Dealy paced the Jumbo attack with nine kills, as the Jumbos moved past the struggling Polar Bears. Bowdoin's only conference win this year came against Hamilton in a battle for the NESCAC basement. "Bowdoin is definitely a weaker team," Thompson said. "They're significantly weaker. So it was a must to win in three [straight games]." The Jumbos looked well on their way to doing so after winning the first two games 30-18 and 30-22, but they hit a snag in the third before pulling out a tight 31-29 win. "We played okay in the first two games, but that last one, we let them control the speed of the game," O'Reilly said. "It was close, which it shouldn't have been." With Dealy leading the Jumbos in kills against Bowdoin, Lutostanski doing so against Trinity, and Fleisher pacing the attack against Wesleyan, the Jumbos had three different outside hitters stepping up in Harrison's absence. Since Harrison got elbowed in the head in practice on Oct. 14, Thompson has mixed in all three of her outside hitters, and the Jumbos have responded by going 8-2. "It's great to have three quality backups to Kelli at outside hitter," Thompson said. "We haven't skipped a beat at all. All three have done a great job." Harrison will remain sidelined for the NESCAC Tournament, so Thompson will once again be mixing her lineup as the Jumbos fight for a conference championship.The Jumbos will travel to Colby on Friday to take on second-ranked Amherst in the first round of the tournament.

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From across the Atlantic, a new fellow

November 1

New Fletcher School fellow Michael Lake gave a preview Tuesday of the course he will teach next spring. Lake, who served as the European Commission Ambassador to South Africa from 2001 until he came to Tufts this fall, gave his first speech open to the public in Cabot Hall. He spoke on "European Union-U.S. Relations in the Post-Constitutional Limbo" to about 20 Fletcher School and undergraduate students. The European Constitution failed to be ratified after it was rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands earlier this year. Despite its rejection, Lake said, European Union-U.S. relations remain strong. "More investments flow between Europe and the United States than to any other economies," he said. Lake addressed issues ranging from expansion of Europe's influence in the world relative to that of the United States to the current military goals of the European Union. Though China and India have gained large shares of the world market, Lake said, the United States' continuing commitment to European trade can be seen by past spending. "The United States invests in France 45 percent more than it does in China," he said. "In 2003, the United States put $100 billion into the [European Union]." Fletcher School Professor Alan Henrikson organized the event and gave opening remarks. He said this is the first time a fellow from the European Union will teach at the Fletcher School. "This is a unique partnership with the European Commission," he said. "We've never had this opportunity before." Lake will teach a seminar next semester on external relations of the European Union. Henrikson organized the lecture to give Fletcher School students the opportunity to meet Lake and hear what issues will be discussed in the class. Many political theorists fear the growing influence of a united Europe, Lake said, but he downplayed such concerns. "America will always have the biggest army, and China will always produce the cheapest goods," he said. "Economically, Europe is lagging behind the United States." At this point, Lake said, the European Union is an "experiment" that will answer many questions. There needs to be a balance between the social and economic interests of a united Europe, he said. Following the lecture, Lake took questions from the audience. The questions focused on Europe's support of underdeveloped countries and the continent's military stance. "I found the lecture to be very enlightening," second-year Fletcher student Pasha Vasilev said. "The European Union is relatively new and it is important to understand what it is about."

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Inside College Football | Georgia falls from the unbeaten ranks, two others receive scares

November 1

Last Week's Game of the Week: As the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs went into the Swamp last week, they looked to remain one of the few undefeated teams in college football. No. 16 Florida had other plans. The Gators jumped out to an early 14-0 first quarter lead and then had to hang on for dear life, but the Blue and Orange came away with a 14-10 victory. It was Florida's 14th win in the last 16 meetings with the Bulldogs, but this one did not come easily. After Gator quarterback Chris Leak threw a touchdown pass and ran for another score, the Georgia defense shutdown the Florida offense. Fortunately for the Gators, their defense was also up to the task. Georgia, which played without injured quarterback D.J. Shockley, made it very interesting in the second half. Joe Tereshinski III filled in for Shockley and made a remarkable play in the third quarter that resulted in a touchdown and cut the deficit to 14-10. Late in the quarter, Tereshinski took a snap and pitched the ball to tailback Thomas Brown as he was falling to the ground. Brown started left and then threw the ball back across the field to a waiting Tereshinski, who made a great catch as he was undercut by Todd McCullough. The quarterback somehow landed on his feet and dove past the goal line for the touchdown. But in the fourth quarter, Florida squelched each of the Bulldogs' drives to preserve the victory. On the last drive, defensive end Jeremy Mincey batted down a pass at the line of scrimmage, and then nearly sacked Tereshinski on fourth down as his desperation pass fell incomplete. The loss all but ends any hope the Bulldogs had of playing in the national title game, but they can still capture the SEC championship if they win out. Florida also still has a shot at the SEC title, though it needs help. The Gators need to win the rest of their games while also needing the Bulldogs to lose once more. Whether it is Florida or Georgia winning the SEC Eastern Division, either will likely face currently undefeated No. 4 Alabama in the title game. More Week 9 Games: While Georgia fell from the unbeaten ranks, two other teams came very close to doing the same. The No. 2 Texas Longhorns were staring at a 28-12 halftime deficit against an Oklahoma State team that was winless in the Big 12. Then quarterback Vince Young decided to take over. In the third quarter alone, the junior threw for one touchdown and ran for two more, including an 80 yard scamper just 52 seconds into the half. When the dust settled, the Longhorns found themselves on the good end of a 47-28 result. Oddly enough, the match-ups between these two teams in past years have been quite similar. Texas recovered from a 35-7 deficit last season, scoring 42 unanswered points in the second half to win 56-35 last year. The year before, the Longhorns trailed 16-14 before reeling off 41 straight points. In their last three meetings, Texas has outscored Oklahoma State 118-0 in the second half. No. 8 UCLA also got a scare, as the Bruins trailed the Stanford Cardinal 24-3 with just over seven minutes to play in the fourth quarter. UCLA, not wanting its perfect season to end, dominated the closing minutes of regulation, scoring three consecutive touchdowns on drives of 65, 72, and 66 yards. When wide receiver Brandon Breazell caught a 23 yard touchdown pass from quarterback Drew Olson in the first overtime, the Bruins had completed the comeback and won the game 30-27, running their record to a perfect 8-0. UCLA now has two games remaining before its match up with top-ranked USC, which easily defeated Washington State 55-13 on Saturday. Quarterback Matt Leinart threw for 364 yards and three touchdowns, and running back LenDale White ran for 155 yards and two scores. In other action, No. 3 Virginia Tech made a statement against No. 13 Boston College, winning fairly easily at home, 30-10. Quarterback Marcus Vick was very efficient, completing 22 of 28 passes for a career-high 280 yards and a touchdown, and he also gained 52 yards on the ground. Player of the Week: Vince Young. With his performance this week, the junior made his case for the Heisman Trophy look even better. Young finished his day with 239 yards passing and a career-high 267 yards on the ground, setting a school record for total offense. He is in a dead heat with USC studs Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart in the race for the Heisman. Upcoming Game of the Week: No. 5 Miami at Virginia Tech. This game will be the toughest test so far for the Hokies, who have more or less cruised through their schedule so far. The Virginia Tech offense will be tested by the stingy Hurricane defense, but with the team riding Marcus Vick and the home crowd, look for the Hokies to come out on top.

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Onward and Upward

November 1

Emily Schaffer (LA '02) went from the quiet suburbs outside of Boston to the boisterous city of Compton, Calif. Her West Coast surroundings were more than just 3,000 miles away from Gate of Heaven Catholic School in South Boston, where Schaffer volunteered as a Tufts undergraduate. "There's a very different demographic," Schaffer said. "My school in Compton [Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary School in Compton Unified School District] was 60 percent African American, 40 percent Latino, 100 percent free [or] reduced lunch and 87 percent below poverty line. There were a lot of language and culture challenges." Upon graduating from Tufts, Schaffer joined Teach For America (TFA). The national program aims to eliminate unequal education by having recent graduates teach at impoverished schools across the country. Originally from California, Schaffer chose to work in her home state for TFA. The school where Schaffer taught had a history of poor performance. "Compton was coming out of state receivership due to abysmal test scores, and I started the first year they came out of that [receivership]," Schaffer said. Schaffer's students moved up 1.5 grade levels in one year, but Schaffer is modest about her students' success. She said it was less an indication of fantastic teaching ability than an indicator that the students had previously been academically neglected. "Some of the students come in so low," she said. "They've been under-taught for a while. By no means was I superwoman. It's more a matter of training, leadership and great support within my school." The unique perspective that TFA afforded Schaffer enabled her to understand the Compton community. "One of the things Teach for America gives you is the opportunity to live in an area you would never ever live," she said. "I know someone who lived in the Mississippi Delta." "You really get to know the families," she said. "Every week, I was at dinner at another person's house. I didn't live in Compton, but I practically did." Teaching the children of the Compton community helped Schaffer to put the reputed violence of the area into perspective. "There are families that live in this community," Schaffer said. "Every day these students walk to class and no one shoots them on their way to class." Schaffer, however, admitted that crime in Compton does exist. "I had to promise my dad that I would take a self-defense course and buy a club," she said. "It would just be a lie to deny that there is violence in the areas we work in." According to Schaffer, the negative stereotype of the Compton area is reinforced by the media. "These communities are constantly in the press, and any news was always bad news," she said. "No one ever wanted to know when the children were achieving." One of the controversial aspects of TFA is that even if they are very effective, the graduates the program employs as teachers are only placed in schools for a two-year period. Critics have charged that as a result of this time limit, the progress implemented by TFA teachers in their low-income schools is temporary rather than ongoing, and those schools again fall by the wayside once the teachers' two years are up. But after completing her two-year commitment, Schaffer decided to stay on an extra year in Compton and switch from teaching kindergarteners to teaching fifth graders. The quantitative economics and Spanish double-major taught a dual-immersion program, and her students finished out the year bilingual. The relatively short length of her stay at the Compton school was something Schaffer tried to make up for by aiming to keep her programs alive after she left. "I knew going into Teach For America that I wasn't going to stay in the classroom for more than a couple years," said Schaffer, adding that she took steps "so that change could [be] perpetuated after I was gone." Schaffer was involved in the school outside the classroom as the school's technical coordinator, as well as the secretary of the school's PTA. She also set up a nutrition program and designed new registration procedures. "There's so much to do - you can actually get a huge amount of responsibility if you're willing," Schaffer said. That opportunity for leadership uncommon. "The reason I ultimately chose Teach For America was that I knew I would have some really valuable skills," Schaffer said. "[A lot of jobs offer] a huge array of experience, but they haven't necessarily executed something." Schaffer said that although TFA was rewarding, the decision to participate was not an easy one. "I applied to a variety of programs and jobs, and I knew I wasn't ready to devote my life to shuffling papers," she said. "I knew I wasn't ready for the full time office environment. I was afraid that I would be a slave and not have any free time, but in the end I wanted to take the risk." The active lifestyles of Tufts students often make them a good match for TFA, Schaffer said. "Tufts students are typically very active in addition to their course work," she said. "They're involved in two or three activities. They're accustomed to multitasking. It just seems like they're able to tackle many things at once." Schaffer herself multitasked as an undergrad: she was on the Spirit Coalition and the rugby team, worked as a manager at the Office of Student Activities, worked for Tufts Public Relations and participated in a program called Peace Games in schools in South Boston. She also studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain, and took a Tufts-funded trip to Cuba. Schaffer is currently working at a San Francisco neuroscience company where she is helping "to create a curriculum and implement a software program for elderly people, [that] helps combat cognitive decay." She said that although the work there is very different than her work with Compton kindergartners, it is related to both teaching and the social justice mission of TFA. In the future, Schaffer would like to work with school administration and public policy in the public sector.

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From the punch clock to the classroom

November 1

Through middle school and high school, many students strive to get into a college offering them the best education possible. Once they get to college, they try to squeeze the most out of their four years through coursework and life experience. But what about the people who attend Tufts every day for a different reason: work? Education at Tufts is not just for students. The Tufts Human Resources Benefits Office offers educational opportunities for Tufts employees through two main educational benefit programs, the tuition remission program and the staff tuition reimbursement program. The tuition remission program covers 100 percent of the cost of courses taken at Tufts, and all university employees - faculty and staff alike - are eligible for the program after three months of employment. Educational benefits at Tufts apply to all employees, regardless of the nature of their work. The only factor affecting benefits is the employee's working hours per week. Full-time employees receive more benefits than regular part-time employees, who work from 17.5 to 35 hours per week. Full-time employees can apply for tuition remission for up to two courses per semester after three months of employment, while part-time employees can do so for only one course per semester. According to Vice President of Tufts Human Resources Kathe Cronin, among those who enroll in the tuition remission program, science-related courses are a popular choice. Those classrooms, Cronin said, provide the best resources for research technicians under employment at the Tufts School of Medicine. Another educational offer, the staff tuition reimbursement program, applies to job-related or other approved courses at accredited universities. Tuition reimbursement is exclusive to staff employees who have completed one year of full-time service at Tufts, and allows maximum reimbursement of $2,000. According to Cronin, this program often proves most practical for staff employees: though many staff members do not find courses at Tufts directly relating to their jobs, tuition reimbursement gives them the opportunity to take applicable courses elsewhere. Cronin compared the two programs. "I would say that tuition reimbursement is more popular among staff," she said. "It can be more difficult for staff to find job-related courses here at Tufts, so they may look into other courses at other institutions." Jocelyne Jean-Louis, a lead customer service assistant at Hodgdon Dining, said that the educational opportunities Tufts provides for staffers like herself promote the general good of the University. "I think taking courses will be good for the employees, and I think if you work in a university, you need a higher level of education," Jean-Louis said. Cronin said that "both the tuition remission program and tuition reimbursement program are well-publicized when employees apply for jobs," and added that most staff members are aware of such educational opportunities. But some employees - even those who support the existence of the programs - expressed confusion about those programs. When asked about her awareness of the extent of employee educational benefits, Jean-Louis said, "I know my children can take courses for free here at Tufts. Can I take courses too?" Despite such ambiguity, Cronin said that employees have responded well to the tuition remission program - through which the children, spouses and domestic partners of employees who've been full-time at Tufts for five consecutive years have the opportunity to take courses at the University. "A lot of children of our employees take courses here," Cronin said. Having staff members in undergraduate courses can lend students a viewpoint that they might not otherwise see within a classroom. "I have had staff people take my courses, and it is always great," said American Studies Professor Elizabeth Ammons. "It makes a very valuable addition to the class to have folks whose perspectives are often different from most undergraduates." In addition to tuition remission and reimbursement, the Human Resources Department also supports the Organizational Development and Training team. The team offers organizational consulting, management and professional development programs that aim to enhance employees' job-related skills, thus improving Tufts' administrative capabilities. Cronin remains confident about Tufts' educational benefits program and its competitiveness with such programs at other universities. "We periodically survey other institutions with their benefits programs," she said. "Tufts, being a research institution, should give staff the opportunity to continue their education." When compared to those at comparable institutions, Tufts' educational benefits are relatively standard. Most NESCAC and Ivy League schools offer tuition reimbursement, administrative and managerial training programs, and the option to audit or receive credit in courses at the university for free - all of which Tufts offers as well.

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Keith Barry | Blight on the hill

November 1

If you were in Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences and needed an excuse to stay awake, you inevitably had to read my column last week. You may remember that I suggested tearing down the fence demarcating the border between Powderhouse Boulevard and Tufts. Barry talk, Jumbo listen. No more fence. This aperture of the campus helped me find a new pathway to class this morning: a lovely walk past Dewick and straight up through Dearborn Gate. Behind me, I heard two friends talking, and the conversation went something like this: "Wow, that's so cool! How'd they get those pumpkins up there?" My favorite Tufts tradition had returned. The Tufts Mountain Club had ascended to the very tops of some of the tallest buildings in Medford. Like a flag on a mountain peak, each climb was heralded by a bright orange pumpkin. Halloween is a tradition-filled time. Kids knock on doors, candy is given and latent peanut allergies are discovered. In college, there's the tradition of girls with low self-esteem adding the adjective "slutty" to their costumes: Roll up the waist on your Maytag repairwoman costume, and you are now a slutty Maytag repairwoman. Perhaps it's this outpouring of tradition that exacerbates the lack of tradition on the Hill. We've got the TCU Senate-sponsored Naked Quad Reception Courtesy of Krispy Kreme, and maybe one fraternity that has been in continuous operation without suspension since October. If the Sox do well, 44 percent of the campus congregates just long enough for some idiot to punch a cop. Tufts has no "Tufts Club" in a far-flung metropolis. Jumbo caught fire. Jay's, the one restaurant that every alum can remember, is now closed. Other schools have secret societies where membership can guarantee you the presidency. The best benefit at Tufts is the discount at Ball Square Liquors. Anybody who went to Tufts in the past 30 years could tell you that Sol Gittleman's house was the white colonial with the green shutters on Professor's Row. Now it's the temporary home of the Music Building. I bet most students who haven't been on a campus tour lately don't even know why the Rez Quad is called such, and think it's just a mud volleyball court. I think a lot of the reason why Tufts doesn't have any traditions is because it was founded by a group of people who broke from tradition: Unitarianism does not come to mind when I think of rigidly dogmatic religions. Tufts' founders wanted to create an alternative to the mainline Protestant schools that dotted the Northeast. In a way, this is good. It's a clean start, with none of that fuddy-duddy, old New England, let's-have-a-morning-prayer-service, I-remember-you-from-Andover, I'm-going-to-name-the-building-after-my-daddy crap. At the same time, it means that there's very little of a shared experience for Tufts students. I have never had a conversation with a Tufts alum where we had any collective memory of our college years. Aside from large debts, I don't feel like I have anything Tufts-related in common with any Tufts graduates, and they usually just complain about how ugly all the new buildings are. Sometimes they ask me where the nearest soup kitchen is. This is why I love the Tufts Mountain Club. Their precarious pumpkin placements might not make as much news as MIT's levitating Chevy Cavalier hi-jinks, but it's a tradition that brings everyone together. I've even seen neighborhood parents taking their children for a walk pointing out the different pumpkins to their kids. Also, watching Facilities driving around with a bucket truck trying to figure out how to get the pumpkins back to earth should be the subject of a Discovery Channel special. The Mountain Club found a way to share a bit of their own personal tradition with the entire school. Until the squirrels get hungry, we've all come together as one pumpkin-gazing community. Sure, our mascot is in a Jif jar and nobody wears Tufts-themed ties unless they're at a Trustee's meeting. I'm proud of that independent streak, but if I ever come back to campus again after I graduate I'll make sure it's on Halloween.Keith Barry is a senior majoring in psychology and community health. He can be reached via e-mail at keith.barry@tufts.edu

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Pom in Prague | David Pomerantz

November 1

In classes at Tufts, you're liable to hear about communist governments all the time, but it is nearly always in a Cold War context. We talk about the system's ideological tenets, or perhaps its economic failures, but I never heard about what communism might have meant for individuals actually living in a communist regime. In fact, for many American college students, communism is just an antiquated clichhe. So when I went to the first week of my "Culture of Dissent" class with Professor Jan Urban, the topics of his lectures struck me as very novel. Instead of international relations or economics, we became privy to an often painfully personal description of what totalitarian rule was like for individuals and what the consequences of rebellion were. Urban (pronounced ur-BAN) is something of a political celebrity in the Czech Republic. In 1989, after over a decade of dissidence, Urban helped to found the Civic Forum, the mass-based movement that overthrew the communist regime. In 1990, he was elected as the leader of the Civic Forum and led the party to its victory in the first free democratic elections in June of that year. The day after the electoral defeat of communism, Urban quit politics and returned to a career of journalism and teaching. Among the students in New York University's study abroad program here, he is a topic of the utmost fascination. Those of us enrolled in the class talk about him constantly. Even at 9 a.m., we're excited to know that the morning's discussion could range from Urban's clandestine trips across the Polish border to his experience with Salvadorian armies of grenade-wielding 10-year-olds. I was lucky enough to sit down with Urban and discuss a range of topics. This week's column consists of our conversation about life as a dissident in the communist regime. We started by discussing how he began dissenting from the government. "It was kind of a family tradition to go against government wishes in any regime," said Urban, who had told us in one of our first classes that his father had fought against the Nazis during their occupation of the Czech Republic from 1938-1945. "In my case [this impulse to dissent] was strengthened by what happened in 1968," he said. In 1968, the Soviets sent tanks into Prague to end the liberalizing attitude that had characterized the "Prague Spring." "My first encounter with the regime was when I failed a test of loyalty," Urban said. "It was January 1977 when the first organized human rights group, 'Charter 77,' took place. All state employees, including teachers - I was a young high school teacher at the time - were required to sign a condemnation of this 'anti-socialist, imperialist plot.' And I refused to sign it." "I was immediately suspended - the police led me out of the building," he said. For the next 12 years, Urban lived as a dissident, often in hiding from the police, and basically being a pain in the regime's side in myriad ways. I told Urban that I thought a lot of young Americans - and perhaps older Americans as well; I wouldn't know - don't understand about the most repressive aspects of communist rule. It's something very removed from us, and I asked him to tell me what daily life was like before 1989. "It's not you who decides," he said. "It's the regime. You want to travel? It's the regime's decision, not your right. To study? The same. The state controls everything - education, jobs, culture, travel - and the slightest sign of dissent makes you an outcast." "[When you do dissent], your friends cross the street not to be seen with you. People stop seeing you," he added. I asked him if this was the hardest part of rebelling. "Yes. You understand very quickly that people are afraid of you, and you start being afraid yourself," Urban said. "You distrust people because anyone can inform on you, and it changes all your life." "At one stage I hadn't written a word on paper for nine years, just to not leave traces," he added. "I would never meet people in pubs for maybe 15 years. You go somewhere and you check everything and everyone. You distrust and lie as a program because this is the only safe way to survive." I am coming to realize, both from Urban's class and our conversation, that this is the true nature of totalitarianism. It is not about politics. It is about psychology, and it is about creating fear and institutionalizing that fear in every soul possible. The next time your international relations or economics professor starts explaining the Cold War as an ideological struggle or communism as a failed economic experiment, remember that for men like Urban, it was far different. For the people who lived under these regimes, communism meant the indefinite paralysis of personal freedom. The focus of next week's column will switch to the future of Czech politics and the rampant speculation that communists may again have a share of power after the 2006 elections. It will also consider whether Americans are asking enough questions of their own government. Perhaps some more dissent might not be the worst thing for us, too? According to Urban, "something is brewing" back Stateside.

The Setonian
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Julie Schindall | Making the Connections

November 1

The French voice is a funny thing. While eavesdropping on two French coquettes recounting last night's soiree at the discotheque, the voice sounds melodious, silly, and elegant, like sparrows rejoicing in spring. On the other hand, the man shouting in French on his mobile phone at midnight outside the Geneva train station sounds like a hoarse bullfrog: somewhat slimy and impotent. But for the most enjoyable, and most appealing, incarnation of la belle langue, I refer you to a voice without a face, a voice that can lull me to sleep in all its nasally vowels and unpronounced consonants. That voice is the dubbing voice for the character Dr. John Carter on the French-language version of E.R., called "Urgences." (Yes, I realize I have already written about the inimitable Noah Wyle in the space of this column. His great beauty, like cell phone bills and bad haircuts, follows me everywhere. My time in Switzerland is enhanced by his memory.) But calm down, folks, this week's column is not about Noah Wyle, even in all his glory. It is about dubbing. The same dubbing that keeps you staring at the screen bug-eyed, trying to decide whether to follow the words shaped by the actors' mouths or the words emanating out of the television speakers. Who is speaking? Why is his mouth moving when no words are coming out? When did television become so complicated? In fact, television is so complicated these days that it plays into relations between nations. The en vogue America-bashers like to talk about American unilateralism and American hegemony, and critics write books and give speeches on this topic. But has the anti-American contingent considered television? American hegemony may well be expressed in our unilateralism in invading Iraq, but it can also be well understood by looking at the way we export American television programming. It's not as if American TV shows haven't been watched and adored for years in foreign countries. Many Europeans have gushed about David Hasselhoff on "Baywatch" and giggled over "The Simpsons," a familiarity imparted through the filter of dubbing. But while Pam still had the double-D's, something was lost in translation. "Baywatch" just isn't "Baywatch" without that fabulous, clean Southern California accent (yours truly, naturally, hailing from this exalted part of the world). So while ten years ago the globalization of television still had the non-English-speaking world turned on its head, the interlocutors of television in Europe have today truly come into their own. And in no country have they mastered the art of dubbing better than in France. For this devotee of Thursday nights with the staff of E.R., I can tell you that "Urgences" is no cheap American import. "Urgences," with the skill of the voice-over actors, is truly a French television program. As hard as it is to admit, when I'm watching "Urgences" I almost don't miss "E.R." I find myself caught up in Abby's soft yet competent enunciation and Luka's brooding and masculine timbre (how ironic that a Croatian actor speaking English is dubbed into French). The cast of characters speak a type of French that is a far cry from the "froggy French" of stereotypes and miscommunications. This is the French of the international era, the language that has just the word for every situation, and that sounds best coming from the mouths of diplomats and artists and lovers. Or so French nationalists would like you to believe. The reality is that, while French television producers may have co-opted the sound track of American TV shows, the French language has nonetheless lost its title as the world's lingua franca. Indeed, the cafes of Geneva are filled with African diplomats, Kazak nationalists, and Australian aid workers all animatedly conversing-in English. Of course, French is certainly a lovely language, and it is highly helpful when trying to buy a train a ticket at the Geneva station. But in the international streets of this city, it is English that is par for the course. Of course I will continue to enjoy my "Urgences" and the juiciness of Dr. Carter reincarnated as a Frenchman, and I will still desperately try to escape my idiotic American monolingualism. But for all the French coquettes and excellent voice-over actors, the French language has fallen out of the race to be the language of our global world. But while the clock is still ticking, can I just ask that Noah Wyle speak French on "E.R."? It'd be so hot.

The Setonian
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Ten years later, Israeli filmmaker remembers Rabin

November 1

@ "We come together to mark this year, and this time, with remembrance and discussion," Rabbi Jeffery Summit said as he introduced filmmaker Michael Yohay Tuesday night. Yohay spoke on the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, which happened ten years ago this Friday. Rabin served as prime minister from 1974-1977 and again from 1992 until his death. He was shot on Nov. 4, 1995 after speaking at a rally promoting the Oslo peace process with the Palestinians by Yigal Amir, a right-wing activist. Yohay began his presentation at the Granoff Family Hillel Center by playing singer Naomi Shemer's version of "Oh Captain, My Captain" by Walt Whitman, which she recorded in tribute to Rabin. Yohay compared the shock felt by the Israeli people by the assassination to that of Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. "Rabin truly believed in the peace process," he said. He also mentioned the question in Israel of releasing the Amir from his life prison sentence. "This is something we should never consider and we should never forget," Yohay said. Yohay then showed a short film of documentary footage on Rabin's career by Shahar Segal. Rabin was born in British Mandate Palestine in 1922, making him the first Israeli prime minister born in what would become the Jewish state. In 1962 he became chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces - a position he held during the Six Day War of 1967. After the war, Rabin served as the ambassador to the United States until he was elected on the Labor Party ticket to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in 1973. He succeeded Golda Meir as prime minister after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He resigned from this position in 1977 in the midst of a political scandal. His wife, Lea, was found to have a U.S. bank account, illegal at that time. He returned to government as defense minister in coalition government with the Likud Party during the 1980s. When Rabin became prime minister again in 1992, he kept the title of minister of defense. Yohay retired last year as a lieutenant colonel in Israeli Defense Forces. During his time in the military he served as the head of the Film and News Production Branch of the Spokesperson's Division. He has directed and produced 18 films and now works as a freelance filmmaker. His team, as well as a delegation from Jordan were the only journalists permitted to cover the peace talks leading to the 1994 peace agreement with Jordan. "It was the peak moment of my army career," Yohay said. Yohay showed the film about the treaty with Jordan. It featured footage from the opening of the Arava border crossing between Israel and Jordan, the intense negotiations that preceded the treaty and the official announcement and signing of the treaty. During his time in the military, Yohay spent time around Rabin and shared some anecdotes with the approximately 25 people who attended. These ranged from light-hearted remarks - Rabin was a poor dancer but an excellent soccer player, he was shy around woman and was never able to tie a necktie - to a description of Rabin's uncompromising stance on peace. "He had zero tolerance for those who didn't agree with the peace process," Yohay said of Rabin. This may have contributed to the resentment on the right that led to Rabin's assassination, Yohay said. He concluded the presentation by addressing the question of whether Rabin's death altered the course of history. "It was a waste of an act," Yohay said. He compared Rabin's assassination to that of President Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr., all of whom were killed for political purposes but too late to prevent their life's work from having an impact. Hillel will host a follow-up discussion on Rabin and the Oslo peace process today.

The Setonian
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Women's Cross Country | Fourth place at NESCACs spells potential for success

November 1

An average day never felt so good for women's cross country. On Saturday, the Jumbos took fourth place at the NESCAC Championships at Wesleyan College, priming them to take one of the five regional spots available for Nationals that will be decided in two weeks. Sophomore Catherine Beck (11th, 18:32) and senior tri-captain Becca Ades (13th, 18:42) took All-NESCAC second team honors by placing in the top 14, leading the team to 90 points, just behind Colby, who took third with 78 points. The Jumbos beat Middlebury (fourth, 119), which had won six of the last seven NESCAC Championships and finished second in the nation at Nationals last season, by 29 points. "It was good to see who was out there," Coach Kristen Morwick said. "I think some people made some mistakes, and some people had great races." Junior Raquel Morgan (20th, 19:06) out-kicked freshman teammate Evelyn Sharkey (21st, 19:06) down the stretch. The two were followed closely by sophomore Katy O'Brien (25th, 19:15) as the Jumbos put their top five across the line within 43 seconds of each other. The performance moved Tufts up to eighth in the national rankings and fourth in the New England coaches' poll. But Morwick stressed that the team can still progress. "Everyone in the top seven can do better," Morwick said. "It wasn't their best race but it was good. We have a ton of room for improvement." Williams College, which took first, put four runners in front of Beck and handily downed the Jumbos by 45 points, only two weeks after the Jumbos went out to Williamstown and put three runners in front of Williams' fourth runner. Amherst had three runners in front of Beck. "Beck can definitely run better," Morwick said. "She ran well but she can run better." Regardless, Beck and Ades both took All-NESCAC honors for the first time in both of their respective careers. Ades has made huge strides in the last month to get back to the top of the Jumbos pack after returning from injury at the beginning of the season and missing a good deal of training over the summer. "She was pretty determined to do it," Morwick said of Ades getting All-NESCAC. "She went out hard and went after it. She's still on the climb from coming back from that injury. Every race she's getting better and better and better." "My strategy was just to go out with the top runners and stay with them," Ades said. "It went very well for me." The middle of the Jumbo pack saw some strong contributions out of its two other tri-captains, junior Jenny Torpey (47th, 19:42) and senior Arielle Aaronson (48th, 19:47). The two followed close behind freshman Katie Rizzolo (36th, 19:32) to give the Jumbos a solid top eight runners. The strong showing from Torpey and Aaronson made up for junior Sarah Crispin (57th, 19:56) having a rough day. "We have a lot of depth this year so even if a couple people have some bad performances, it's alright," Morgan said. The fourth place finish puts the Jumbos in prime position to earn a spot for Nationals this season, something they narrowly missed out on last season. The top five teams at Div. III New England Regional Championship in two weeks at Springfield College will get a trip out to Ohio Wesleyan to compete for the national title. Traditionally, those top five teams have all come from the NESCAC. "On an average day we're fourth in NESCACs which is the toughest division in the country and I think that's pretty good," Ades said. Usually by the end of the season, some runners face the feeling of being burnt out from constant racing. But the excitement of the team nearing its goal for the season has the Jumbos ready to compete. "This year as it's progressing I'm actually getting more and more excited," Morgan said. "Really we just have to get through Regionals [to accomplish our goal]." As for this weekend, the second seven will head to back to Connecticut to race for the ECAC Championship. The group will be led by Aaronson, Torpey and freshman Morgan Medders, who was one of the top finishers in the open race (19:57), which included both collegiate men and women. "Other than Williams, we have the best second group out there," Morwick said. "This meet showed us quite a bit in terms of depth." Sophomore Anna Shih (58th, 19:56) and freshman Susan Allegretti (61st, 19:59) finished just after Crispin in the varsity race, and sophomore Laura Walls (68th, 20:06) was not far behind. Tufts put its top 13 runners within 1:34 of one another, giving the Jumbos a very deep team. The final lineup for the Jumbos for ECACs has not yet been determined.

The Setonian
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Novice Crew | Novice crews finish strong in final race

November 1

While the varsity team might be finished for the fall, the novice crew still had one race to go, and it went out with a bang in the NESCAC-NERC Novice Championships at Worcester. Both the men's and women's teams finished relatively well in their final race of the fall season. Out of the dozen boats that raced in the men's race, the Tufts A boat finished fourth and the B boat finished 11th. "I think we did well overall," coach Jim Burke said. "We were going up against a bunch of different schools that had different levels of experience. I was pleased with the way both boats ran." The second boat ran into some trouble when it caught a crab in the first third of the race. While this was initially a setback, it did not worry Burke a bit. "They recovered nicely from [the crab incident]," the coach said. "I feel like they rode a good race; the effort was there. I think it was as simple as the fact that the other boats were just faster than we were." The men's team, while young, has a bright future. They have two freshman coxswains, Danielle Damm and Maya Brakhman, who come from unlikely sources. The men's team was searching for coxswains and Brakhman came from the women's novice team; according to Burke, Damm came from out of nowhere. "[Damm and Brakhman] together have done a good job considering that they are so young," Burke said. On the whole, the men's team's results this fall season are impressive considering that some of the rowers had never handled an oar before. The novice Jumbos will use this winter to improve their speed with the help of the more-experienced varsity team. The women's novice team is even more inexperienced, being comprised of nearly all freshmen. Like the men's team, many of the rowers had not had previous rowing experience in high school, so crew was a completely new experience for them. Despite this, the women's novice crew performed remarkably well this year in the Novice Championships. The Tufts A boat finished second behind Wesleyan with a time of 17:12, and the B boat was close behind at fourth with a time of 18:38 in the two-mile race. Last year, the team's highest finish was at fifth. "I think one of our strengths is that our team all together is very close skill-wise," freshman Handy Hahnel said. "We were the first B boat to finish. It says a lot that all the girls are busting their butts together. We're really strong as a team." The women's team also raced for the first time with its newly appointed captains, freshmen Kerri Martin and Langue Clancy. While Martin was encouraged by her team's performance, she did acknowledge that there were obstacles on the way to the strong finish. "It was really, really cold outside," the freshman co-captain said. "It made it a little difficult at times to focus. At certain times during warm-ups when we would stop, it would hit us hard, but during the race, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be." Like the men, the winter will be about improvement for the women's novice team, but the team members realize that one thing they don't have to worry about is chemistry. "I think in general we all work together," Martin said. "We're becoming better at knowing each other and how each of us rows." With spring comes the hope of an even better season for both novice crew teams, and in the way they ended the fall, there appears to be good reason to look forward to the second half of the 2005-06 season.

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