A group of Tufts students hope to address a myriad of issues concerning African-American leadership and social progress at the first annual Emerging Black Leaders Symposium (EBLS) this weekend.
First there was "Kinsey," and now there's "Inside Deep Throat" - the latest movie to address America's obsession with sexual morality, and expose a hypocrisy that became evident in the '70s, yet has continued to thrive , safely delivered from the Nixon administration right through to the Bush era. Directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato of "Party Monster" fame, "Inside Deep Throat" is a vastly entertaining documentary about the low-budget '70s porn movie "Deep Throat." Fast-paced and hard-hitting, the documentary comes across as an illicit history lesson that is at times hilarious and at others somewhat difficult to, um, swallow. Attitudes towards sex in this country, according to both "Kinsey" and "Inside," seem to suffer from a certain "pendulum effect" - there always is a conservative faction that seeks to repress the influence of sex in society, while another equally-enthusiastic bunch forever hopes to liberate the masses and have orgies everywhere. The public, in turn, varies in which side they want to take, producing this swinging repress-express effect. Hence we have the innocence of the '50s, leading into the sexual revolution of the late '60s and '70s. "Inside" captures a turning point in porn history, in terms of its mainstream media exposure. "Deep Throat" remains the most lucrative porn ever made: produced on a budget of $25,000, it has to date grossed over $600 million. After its opening in Times Square on June 12, 1972, The New York Times even praised it as "porn chic." Of course, Nixon and his buddies - the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography - went ballistic and shut it down. Twenty-four states then banned the movie from their cinemas. "Inside" itself contains some pretty graphic scenes, justifying its NC-17 rating. In an interview with the Boston Phoenix, Bailer said, "You can't make a film about "Deep Throat" and not show the thing that made the film so famous." Mostly however, the film is made up of new and old interviews with the actors and directors of "Deep Throat," which are spliced with news-reel footage. Bailey and Barbato cleverly contrast the enthusiasm and hype leading up to the movie's release, with the acts of denial and denunciation by those involved with the movie that followed after the "obscene" label stuck fast. It is interesting to see the star of "Deep Throat," actress Linda Lovelace, become something of a heroine and cultural icon as the fellatio-obsessed girl-next-door, and then denounce the movie and the entire porn industry on "The Late Late Show" with Tom Snyder shortly thereafter. She claims to have been coerced into her role and abused during the making of the movie, and describes becoming a reformed, good girl-next-door, and a mother to boot. It's up to each independent viewer to choose how much of Lovelace's story he or she chooses to believe. It's even more interesting to see '70s feminists jump on the bandwagon in using Lovelace's account to denounce porn and its perpetuation of male dominance in society. To be fair, the premise of "Deep Throat" is nothing short of ridiculous - a woman discovers that her clitoris is actually in her throat - but it is funny to see those who took it all a bit too seriously. One interviewee is asked whether "Deep Throat" had a scarring influence on him, and when he gravely replies: "Oh yes, it made a huge impact ... I wish I had never seen it ..." it's hard to take him seriously. The film's triumph, however, is in making viewers think about current attitudes. Producer Brian Glazer put $1 million of his own money into this movie, and clearly thought the documentary had a lot of probing to do, and probe it does. The current porn industry takes in $10 billion annually - and if history has anything to tell us, perhaps cable television and hotel chains should be preparing themselves for the next big backlash. Regardless, "Inside" provides some food for thought, but if you're looking for a good date movie, "Hitch" might be a better option for now - unless of course you and your date view feeling uncomfortable as foreplay, or just want to find a good way of skipping all that romance stuff and getting straight to the climax.
Non-student issued verbal trespass warning At approximately 1:20 p.m. on the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 25, officers responded to a call made by a female student in Carmichael Hall regarding a non-Tufts student accused of trespassing. Upon the arrival of members of the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD), the female student indicated that she had had an argument with the non-student - a former ex-boyfriend - who had just left the premises. The female student assured officers that the fight was not physical. Authorities stopped the individual outside the dorm and subsequently gave him a verbal trespassing warning. According to Captain Mark Keith of the TUPD, a verbal trespass warning is given to individuals who are not students, faculty, or staff of the University and thus have no right to be on campus. "Should the individual be found on Tufts property again, they are subject to arrest for trespassing," Keith said. Foglights stolen from vehicle A Tufts student alerted authorities to the theft of external parts from his vehicle on the night of Saturday, Feb. 26. The student indicated that he left his Audi vehicle in the Cousens parking lot on Thursday, Feb. 24 and returned on Saturday, Feb. 26 to discover that one of his fog lights had been removed. The second fog light was found hanging from the vehicle. Police currently have no suspect for the crime. According to Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Captain Mark Keith, however, the department is looking at the recent theft in conjunction with the theft of two headlights from a Lexus SUV on Saturday, Feb. 19 in Cohen parking lot. The two incidents have led to an increase in security in University parking lots. "We're stepping up our patrol of those remote parking lots," Keith said. Vehicles drive on academic quad, walkways On the morning of Sunday, Feb. 27 at 3:15 a.m., a Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) officer observed three vehicles driving on the academic quad between Ballou and Bendetson Halls. The officer successfully halted two of the three vehicles. The officer then gave the drivers, identified as students, citations for violating University traffic rules and regulations and sent a report to the Dean of Students office. The third vehicle left the area and was not identified by authorities. No damage to Tufts property was reported. According to Captain Keith, alcohol did not seem to be a factor. Multiple incidences of license plate theft reported Tufts students reported a rash of license plate thefts throughout the day on Sunday, Feb. 27. At approximately 7:00 a.m., two students indicated that someone removed the license plates from their vehicles sometime between the evening of Saturday, Feb. 26 the next morning. The vehicles, parked on Professors Row, had plates registered with Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Later, at approximately 3:00 p.m., two additional students came to authorities reporting that their license plates were also stolen at some time on the morning of Feb. 27. One vehicle, parked on Whitfield Road, had a New York license plate while the other vehicle, parked on Sawyer Avenue, reportedly had a California license plate. At the current time, police have no suspect in the crime.
With the approval of the Tufts Academic Freedom Project (TAFP) resolution from the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on Sunday, Feb. 13, the students behind the TAFP are preparing for the next step, and other members of the Tufts community have addressed their concerns about the resolution. The TAFP is a sub-group of the Tufts Republicans. Senior Brandon Balkind is at the forefront of the TAFP movement, and said that recognition of academic freedom - the right of students, faculty, and administrators to be free from ideological discrimination - is crucial in a university setting. "I'm not a liberal myself and as an engineer, I don't really encounter ideological or political bias in my classes, but I'm working from a conservative standpoint," he said. Balkind said that he is concerned with curriculums and course reading lists administered by some of the faculty at the University. "How can we develop a better curriculum? I think liberal students are not getting the full spectrum ... The course list, the syllabus, should not support one ideology. The reading lists need to be revamped. Students will go through college without reading one conservative author or philosopher," he said. TCU Senator senior Matt Pohl was against the TAFP resolution from the start. "Ideology is very subjective. Students should not be able to claim ideological discrimination if their academic work is factually inaccurate or is grounded in assumptions without the support of a scholarly network," he said. English Professor Ronna Johnson, who was reported by a student two years ago for having liberal bias in the classroom, said that academic freedom was originally instituted into places of higher education to protect the dissenters, not those in power or those in agreement with the dominant political view. "That was the whole point," Johnson said. Pohl said that prior to the introduction of the TAFP's Academic Freedom resolution, the University's own policy on academic freedom outlined sufficient guidelines for upholding and protecting students' and faculty's rights against ideological discrimination. "Academic freedom should not be defined for students who just have differing opinions. Tufts' Academic Freedom policy covers that and when it's so narrowly defined, it's a disservice to the University ... Students don't realize how much the University's policies can protect them. This group didn't do its homework," Pohl said. The University's policy on academic freedom, last revised in 2000, opens with the statement: "Academic freedom in its teaching aspect is fundamental, not only to the advancement of truth but for the protection of the rights of the teacher in teaching and of the student to freedom in learning as well." One part of the University's policy on academic freedom, with regard to teaching practices, states: "The teacher is entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing his/her subject, but should be careful not to introduce into his/her teaching controversial matter which has no relation to the subject." The policy goes on to state: "Hence, [the educator] should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and should make every effort to indicate that he/she is not an institutional spokesman." With regard to reports of ideological bias in the classroom, Balkind gave the example of a student who was derided by a Teaching Assistant (TA) in the post-election period when the student discussed why he voted for President George W. Bush. "We're also concerned when we hear of teachers who make fun of conservatives and the President," Balkind said. "I've heard about some other cases where, what happens is, students will see what kind of ideological beliefs their professors have and before they turn in a paper or an assignment, they'll change what they're going to write." Junior Jordana Starr, a libertarian and managing editor of the University's journal of conservative thought, The Primary Source, gave an example of a specific incidence of ideological bias she has encountered in the classroom. Last semester, Starr took a class in the Political Science Department entitled "Media, Politics, and Law," taught by Professor Michael Goldman. Starr said the class should have been called "Political Bias 101," as "[Goldman] essentially used the class as his soapbox for liberalism." Starr had a list of quotes from Goldman from class that struck her as being the most intolerant, including, "George Bush was a draft-dodger and John Kerry was a war hero - get over it" and calling President Bush an "imbecile" on several occasions. "[Goldman] only expressed one political belief - his own - and if someone expressed something different, he would shut them down," Starr said. "Half the time I did agree with him, because I am socially liberal, but it was frustrating the way he ran his class. The teachers I respect are the ones who keep their opinions out of it and can argue both sides of an argument." Goldman said it shouldn't come as a "humongous shock" that he is a liberal professor, but that he is very open-minded in his classes. "This is what I tell my classes: determine what in your value systems are framed by ideology, gender, religion, geography, ethnicity, and be proud of it. [As a professor], you're always going to get those people who don't like what you have to say ... When there are 75 people in a classroom, they're all going to hear and interpret things differently-that is what they bring to the classroom." Goldman said that he assigns non-liberal readings to his class - recently, he has added books about former U.S. President Ronald Reagan to his reading list. According to Assistant Dean of Students and Bias Intervention Program Director Marisel Perez, the Bias Intervention program does not handle reports of ideological bias. Instead, the Oversight Panel for the University is obligated to attend to complaints from members of the Tufts community who have encountered ideological discrimination. History Professor Steve Marrone sits on the oversight panel and said that he has not yet dealt with a case of a student who has reported being "persecuted" for their political or ideological beliefs in an academic setting. "I've never heard of anyone say in specific words ... that they felt disadvantaged because of their ideological stance," Marrone said. "But sometimes I'll hear students talk about professors being 'too far to the left' or 'too far to the right' in comparison to their views, to which I just tell the students to keep on talking and discuss the differences." When a case of a member of the Tufts community who has felt ideological discrimination arises, Balkind said that the members of the TAFP will report the incident to the TCU Senate and will publish it in The Primary Source, which Balkind said, "is an on-going thing we've been doing for awhile." "We'd like these complaints to be aggregated by the University so that the appropriate [academic] department may be made aware, the students may be protected, and the community will also be aware," he said. Pohl said he did not think this is an efficient way to report bias. "I heard of very many specific problems [of ideological discrimination]. I don't like to read about these [problems and bias incidents] in The Primary Source because [The Source's] purpose is to antagonize instead of verify," Pohl said. Balkind said that there is no way to change the way teachers grade and teach, so any complaints and reports would be "an awareness thing," and the wording behind the TAFP resolution entrusts the identified faculty and departments "to fix [their alleged discrimination]." Balkind said the next step for the TAFP is to bring together students, faculty, and administrators from the Tufts community for a forum on academic freedom. "We're calling faculty members - we don't want to say names - just to hear their opinions on this topic. We want to have meetings with professors, students, Democrats, Republicans and the TCU Senate," he said. In individual meetings with a dozen or so undisclosed professors, Balkind said that he has asked these faculty members what they like and do not like about the resolution. "A lot of professors like the idea that this is being addressed. Some professors just pay attention to racial differences, handicaps and have positive affirmation of the fact that they're not [discriminating against ideologies]," he said. "Some professors don't like to give viewpoints, which I think a lot of students would disagree with. Students want to be presented with viewpoints." Johnson felt that the students behind the TAFP were jumping to conclusions too quickly and making incorrect assumptions. "[The members of the Tufts Republicans and TAFP] are mini-imitations of Karl Rove - they're making hyperactive, preemptive strikes on the faculty with the absence of evidence," she said. Pohl agreed. "Bad policies make ungrounded assumptions, and [the TAFP resolution] didn't delve deep enough," he said. During the 2003 - 2004 academic year, alumnus and former Tufts Republicans president Phil Tsipman presented a Bill of Rights for academic freedom. It was not approved by the TCU Senate because of "national issues," according to current TCU President Dave Baumwoll. Baumwoll said he believed that this Bill of Rights was tied to social critic, author, and commentator David Horowitz, who spoke at the University last April about his concerns regarding the lack of political diversity among professors in higher education. To make this year's TAFP resolution appropriate for Senate review, "[the TCU Senate and Balkind] narrowed down the principles, took out the parts about national issues, and gave it more of a Tufts scope," Baumwoll said. "This [resolution] could have easily not been on the table again with the language of the original resolution." Balkind said there is no connection between the TAFP's current resolution and the Tufts Republican's Academic Freedom Bill of Rights from last year. "The people who were in charge of that are not in charge of the current [TAFP resolution]. This was done from scratch; it didn't use their Bill of Rights," he said. Pohl said that he felt the way the wording in the original resolution was presented was "dishonest." He said that last year's TCU President, Chike Aguh, was responsible for adding Tufts policy into the final resolution for the February meeting. "I think a stronger resolution will [adhere] to Tufts' policy in order to educate the students and professors about it," he said. "I'm not going to point fingers and name names, but I think when there's a movement that involves campus conservatives, the hijacking of language concerns me. If I voted against the original resolution as written, am I against academic freedom? Absolutely not."
In the summer of 2001, the Sacramento Kings put up billboards along the highway trying to catch Chris Webber's eye on his drive home from the arena. "JOE WILL MOW YOUR LAWN IF YOU STAY - GAVIN". These were the lengths that owners Joe and Gavin Maloof went to in order to retain their franchise player. And now just last week, the Kings unceremoniously shipped Webber to the Philadelphia 76ers in one of the busiest deadline days in the history of the league. The Kings continued their effort to go in a more youthful direction, but this kind of an overhaul was totally unexpected. They had severed ties with dinosaur center Vlade Divac in the off-season and dealt defensive stopper Doug Christie to the Magic in exchange for the younger, more offensive-minded Cuttino Mobley. While Divac and Christie were staples of the upstart Kings teams that once took the Lakers to overtime in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, the team was by no means in disarray without them. A starting backcourt of Mobley and Mike Bibby is impressive, and a frontline of Webber, Peja Stojakovic, and Brad Miller is better than most than you will find in the league. With players like Bobby Jackson and Darius Songaila coming off the bench (although Jackson is an injury waiting to happen) you had a rotation on this team that could easily win over 50 games per season, and could at least give San Antonio a fight in the playoffs. Apparently the prospect of being very good, with a slight chance to win a championship, was not good enough for the Sacramento brass, and they should be commended for that. Teams like New York have ownerships in place that would rather be pretty good for a while than take the risk needed to become a contender. This was a major factor that ultimately triggered the trade of Webber. The Kings saw their window of opportunity for winning a championship with Webber as shut, and were not going to wait around to get another opportunity. In the mind of Kings GM Geoff Petrie, Webber had taken them as far as they were going to go, and it was time to make a change. It's also no secret that Webber and Stojakovic do not get along well at all. As with the Kobe-Shaq feud, the Kings traded their aging superstar in order to appease the younger star with a lot more miles left in the tank. It's a sad commentary on the world today when a suave, once-aspiring rapper like Webber cannot coexist with a pasty-white, tight jeans-wearing European like Stojakovic. The trade makes sense from an age and injury perspective. For one, Webber was by far the oldest member of the Kings nucleus at 32, while Bibby, Stojakovic and Miller are 26, 27 and 28, respectively. Webber also badly injured his knee during the 2003 playoffs, leading to the same chronic knee problems that Allan Houston and Jamal Mashburn have - an injury that has more or less ended the careers of those two players. At an undesirable age with a pair damaged knees, the Kings wanted to unload Webber before he really deteriorated or broke down, leaving his contract un-tradable (see: Allan Houston). But while Webber is getting into his early thirties and the knees are a concern, his numbers have shown no signs of decline. He is averaging 21.0 points per game, 9.6 rebounds per game and 5.3 attempts per game in 36 minutes, compared to career averages of 22.0 ppg, 10.1 rpg, and 4.5 apg in 38 minutes. With his numbers still of all-star caliber, there is no reason to believe that Webber might not be able to be very good for two or three more seasons - which is why Philadelphia made the trade. The Kings, though, wanted to trade Webber while his value was high in order to get maximum value for him - and herein lies the rub. If you have not noticed, I have not even mentioned who Webber was traded for. When I first heard about the trade, the ESPN broadcasters did not mention who Webber was traded for. That is because he was traded for - brace yourself - Kenny Thomas? Brian Skinner? Corliss Williamson? This is who the Kings got for their franchise player? Was there a tuna fish sandwich involved with this deal? I was stunned. When I first heard about the deal, I thought "Well, the Kings must have gotten Iguodala," and that might have actually made sense had the Kings acquired the promising rookie in the trade. But instead they got a decent player in Kenny Thomas and some luggage featuring a "Big Nasty" that is more of a "Slightly Unpleasant" with his glory days of Arkansas long behind him. The reasons for wanting to trade Webber - his age, his health, his contract, his problems with Stojakovic - are all sound reasons. But you still have to get either equal talent or cap relief in return, and the Kings did neither. They feared if they did not move immediately they would be stuck with Webber, so they hastily pulled the trigger on this deal. I have some doubts that when Kenny Thomas becomes a free agent, Joe and Gavin Maloof will be offering him lawn care service.
Despite having an outside chance of succeeding this year, the ski team will have to go another season without qualifying for Nationals. The men's top skier, freshman Andrew Benson, failed to complete the slalom run Saturday morning at Regionals, held in New Hampshire. By failing to clear all the gates, Benson was disqualified from the slalom event and the team did not score high enough to move on to Nationals, despite placing sixth in giant slalom (GS). The men's and women's teams produced equal finishes in both GS and slalom, and as a result, each team placed ninth overall for the weekend. The two teams were 11th in slalom and sixth in GS, short of the fifth-spot overall needed to reach Nationals. "Both teams' capability in slalom is better, so in that sense it's a shame we didn't do better in that event, "coach Rob McCune said. "We could do better in GS, but that's not our strongest event. The men had a legitimate bid at Nationals if they had performed well in this race." The men's sophomore co-captain Joseph Shaw said that the men's team had an outside chance of making it to Nationals, but the stars just weren't aligned. "We were going to need a little help from some other teams slipping up," Shaw said. They didn't get it. Instead, it was the Jumbos who slipped up over the course of the weekend. The men's top skier, Benson, did not finish the race after falling at the top of the course and then missing a gate halfway through. "The slalom was a complete debacle," Shaw said of what is usually the Jumbos' stronger race of the two events. "We'd gotten used to counting on [Benson]. I guess after a while, you have to slip up at some point." On the women's side, despite a lack of depth, senior co-captain Erin Johnson said they had five strong skiers, and the day's results were what she was expecting. "This is a building year," Johnson said. "I'm very happy with how we did." The men and women's 17 points each were eight points short of fifth place, putting them each in ninth place out of 16 teams. McCune said that the team was facing a tough course and that underperforming on slalom put a damper on the rest of the weekend. "The men ran into some trouble early and that took a little of the fire out from underneath them," he said. Shaw said that he and sophomore Eric Johnson also had slower than usual times for slalom. Johnson finished 20th in GS and 33rd in slalom, while Shaw finished 49th in GS and 42nd in slalom. Freshman Jayson Uppal placed 57th in slalom, which "prevented the day from being a complete failure," Shaw said. The men's sixth-place finish overall for GS was one of the highlights for Shaw this weekend. "That was really satisfying," he said. "The five teams that beat us were serious varsity programs." The Tufts ski team is a club sport, and its ability to compete with varsity squads is a good sign for the future of the program. "It didn't turn out quite as well as we'd hoped," Shaw said. "We hoped to make Nationals. If we can get sixth in the GS this year, we can do a lot better next year." McCune echoed Shaw's sentiment. "The greatest thing about this season is the amount that both teams accomplished with the resources that they had," he said.
Meena Bolourchi, a freshman studying art and science, is guilty of always carrying a camera around campus. She likes to do 'photo shoots' of her friends to develop a portfolio of portraits, as well as document the beauty of nature that often goes unnoticed. Here, the Tufts academic quad glows with serenity, as depicted through the reflection of a puddle in mid-February. Captured is The Tufts Daily's weekly photo column. Send all submissions to Weeklyphoto@gmail.com
Few bars are good for hanging out with friends, awkward meetings with people you don't know, and having dinner with your parents - but somehow Orleans has successfully allowed me to do all three in recent weeks. Now, you might be wondering, what could this Davis Square restaurant and bar possibly have to offer that kept me coming back, week after week throughout the month of February? Fantastic nine dollar Flirtinis? The coolest ambiance on this side of the Charles? Hip, attractive people to stare at? Or just the fact that it's close to Tufts? Honestly, that last reason might have been the deciding factor in my case. But there are so many bars in Davis - why on all three nights did I choose the same bar?Night #1 It was a snowy Thursday evening in early February. After discarding the idea of drinking ourselves into a stupor in our living room and passing out early, my housemates and I began to seriously consider going out. Orleans is close to our residence, has interesting mixed drinks (a must, given that I detest drinking beer,) and is comfortable to hang out in. Yes, those couches you can glimpse through the windows of Orleans as you walk along Holland Street are as comfortable as they look, perfect to lean back in as you sip your drink. Also, the girls in the group were very interested in going to a place that would force us out of our sweatpants. While not very dressy, the night-time scene at Orleans invites fashionably casual attire. Once inside we ordered ourselves a drink each and a plate of fries. I wish I could tell you what drinks we ordered and how much they cost, but I've found that people think you are extremely uncool if you take notes for an article at a bar, and for some reason the bar menu is not posted on the Orleans website. Let us say that the mixed drinks average about nine dollars and the fries were about five. While probably not the best Cosmopolitans in the world, they are certainly what I would most recommend off the top of my head. The one caveat is that you have to be prepared to spill a certain percentage of the drink from the tricky martini glasses onto yourself and whoever is unlucky enough to be sitting next to you (wearing black helps hide this). We thoroughly enjoyed a couple of drinks each, and then decided that the rest of the drinking for the night would have to be had at a cheaper locale: our trusty living room.Night #2 The second time I went to Orleans this month was for a less routine occasion: cocktails in honor of the Tufts Daily's 25th Anniversary Reunion. Taking place the night before the main events, nobody really knew how many people would show up to the Friday night cocktails. So when the organizers had to find a place that wouldn't be awkward if only five people came (yet was willing to reserve up to 20 spots on a weekend night), Orleans seemed like a good spot. It worked out very well; the lounge area was casual enough to allow people to perch on the sides of the couches and have private conversations on the periphery of the group. Service was prompt and consistent - nothing is worse than needing a drink to get through a conversation and not having a waitress anywhere in sight. On a night like this, I stuck to drinks not served in martini glasses, which limited my options. I seem to recall having a Black Russian and enjoying it, but don't hold me to that. By the end of the night the 15 or so people who had straggled in a couple of hours earlier were ending lively conversations and looking forward to the next day. We left the bar in high spirits.Night #3 By this point you probably think I had moved into those couches, ordered the usual, and resigned myself to a birthday night of chilling in the dimly lit coolness of this now-familiar bar. Yet Orleans was the last thing on my mind as my friends and I finished preparing our house for a party last Saturday. Everything was ready for my birthday bash, and I was just waiting for my sister to arrive from New York so we could order some dinner and relax before the event. When she rushed through the door, however, we hit a small snag: behind her were the grinning faces of my parents who had decided to surprise me. It had to happen at some point in my college career, and to be honest I was glad to see them, but where would we go for dinner? Piling into the car we tossed around every restaurant we could think of from Davis to Harvard. In the end, the lure of Orleans could not be beat and I resigned myself to my fate. In the early evening it is actually quite a nice place to take one's parents. It is an establishment classy enough that they feel they're taking you out, but informal enough that nobody is worried about sitting up straight and holding the knife correctly. My parents, of course, opted for the even less formal couches, and soon we were eating an eclectic dinner of burgers, salads, and bruschetta - all accompanied by Cabernet Sauvignon this time. The wine was good, the food was mediocre, and the space was perfect. And now with February over I can only hope that I will find a new bar for the month -though I highly doubt that any other would be able to serve my various restaurant and bar needs so well.
Due to an editing error, an article in yesterday's paper ("After graduating, Kimball returns to grade school," March 2) incorrectly identified the community service organization Massachusetts Campus Compact as Massachusetts Campus Contact. Campus Compact works to develop college students' civic skills and their relationships with the community, and encourages community service participation.
Theo Epstein is officially New England's James Bond. Women want him, men want to be him. The Red Sox General Manager took some time off from piecing together another World Series run to talk to The Tufts Daily and other college newspapers about his rise through the ranks of baseball, being the general manager of a major league team, and the Red Sox' chances this season. Epstein began by talking about how he got his first break in the industry. "[Trying to find an internship in sports] wasn't as competitive at the time," Epstein said. "I sent out letters to all teams east of the Mississippi, and the Baltimore Orioles were the only one that responded. I worked extremely hard because I knew it might be my only chance; I was asked back for the next two summers and it all went from there." Though it's hard to picture the self-assured general manager feeling nervous around a ballpark, he freely admits that things were difficult at the beginning of his career. "Freshman year [at Yale University], all my friends went down to Cancun for Spring Break but I flew to Baltimore for an interview," Epstein said. "I kept saying to myself, 'don't screw this up.' I also remember coming to work the first day dressed in a full suit and everyone else was in casual clothes." But Epstein fit right in at the internship, where he at first performed the usual menial tasks such as clipping press articles and addressing questions and complaints. "The internship was multi-disciplinary," Epstein said. "It gave me a chance to figure out certain things that I was good at." Epstein worked as a media relations intern for Baltimore for three summers before he followed his boss Larry Lucchino to the San Diego Padres. In San Diego, Epstein attended law school at the University of San Diego while working full time for the Padres Baseball Operations Department. "In San Diego I was lucky to have tremendous mentors," Epstein said. "[General Manager] Kevin Towers took me under his wing and taught me the art of scouting. I've tried to combine Kevin's knowledge of scouting with objective analysis I've learned from some others." All of Epstein's hard work paid off when in 2002 he was named the general manager of the Boston Red Sox at the tender age of 28. Despite his youth and somewhat unconventional ascent to the top, Epstein detected no ill will from the general managers of opposing teams. "When I first got the job I made a point to call the other G.M.s and treat them with a lot of respect," Epstein said. "There was no animosity. If anything the opposite was true - all of them were calling me and trying to make trades and get a piece of what they thought would be fresh meat." So what advice does Epstein have for the legions of college students that want to follow in his path? "Get your internship experience while you're in college," Epstein said. "It's hard to be in graduate school and then decide that you want an internship with a sports team. Do anything you can to get an edge; volunteer for the athletic department, write sports for the school paper, go to minor league ballparks and talk to scouts." Although Epstein is already revered for delivering a World Series Championship to Boston, he hasn't stopped looking for ways to improve the team. "The biggest challenge of the job is trying to stay ahead of the curve," Epstein said. "The competitive advantages are starting to shrink. A lot of very useful metrics are becoming public knowledge; so I'd say the hardest thing is trying to find the next big breakthrough on our own." Epstein has gotten great satisfaction from Boston's success, but still tries to maintain a low public profile. "Managing the celebrity status can be difficult," he said. "When you become a public figure it makes it a lot harder to go through daily life. You have to figure out your priorities. I don't really want a lot of national appeal so I turned down lots of talk show offers. They would have been fun, but I don't really want to get recognized walking down the street all of the time." Epstein is optimistic about the upcoming season, and he says that the Patriots' team-oriented approach is something the Red Sox will continue to adhere to. "The team concept is very important to us," Epstein said. "We're lucky to have seen what the Patriots accomplished and we have been trying to acquire guys who are selfless. When you do that pretty soon you see that the whole is great than the sum of the parts and team acquires a group identity." Epstein had a busy off-season, as he let popular free agents like Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe, and Orlando Cabrera leave town. But Epstein's signings of shortstop Edgar Renteria and pitchers Matt Clement, David Wells, and Wade Miller leave most pundits declaring the Sox winners in the off-season rat race. Thanks in a large part to Boston's favorite new 32-year-old son, Boston will get a chance to defend a World Series title for the first time in 87 years, and Red Sox Nation couldn't be happier with the man at the helm.
In the past few years, cases of students beginning the process of Senior Honors Theses - only to drop them later - have been rare. This trend not only reflects how selective the program is in allowing students to write senior theses, but the extent to which students are dependent upon their advising professors to mentor them throughout the year. The Senior Honors Thesis program is a year-long project that is offered to undergraduates in every department at the University. While the specific procedures vary from department to department, in general, students must propose a topic to the department either at the end of their junior year or at the beginning of their senior year. If the proposal is accepted, the students will work with a trio of advising professors throughout their senior years to develop their theses. Non-honors senior theses, on the other hand, usually need only one professor's guidance throughout the semester. It is common, however, for Senior Honors Theses students to work primarily with only one of their three advising professors. "The chair of a student's advising committee will generally get the student started on research, help to focus the student's ideas and read drafts through the year," said Carmen Lowe, assistant director of the Office of the Dean of the Colleges. "The two non-chair advisers on the committee are meant to help answer more specific questions as they arise." Philosophy major senior Eitan Hersh, is currently working on an Honors Thesis that incorporates Philosophy, Education, and Political Science. Hersh said he reported to his primary advisor about once a week during the fall semester. "To this point, I've only met with my other two advising professors twice each," Hersh said. Although the Office of the Deans of the Colleges does not keep records of how many seniors drop Honors Theses, many professors, including English Professor Jonathan Wilson and Mechanical Engineering Professor Douglas Matson, said that this rarely happens. "They're tough students," Matson said. "They always get it done." According to Matson, Mechanical Engineering theses are generally divided into two parts - during the first semester, students work on an "experimental thesis" and a "technology review" is written during the second semester. According to Mechanical Engineering Professor Anil Saigal, although some senior theses are based off the research of graduate students, other students are very independent when coming up with ideas. Mechanical Engineering senior Paul Nangeroni came up with his own idea for a thesis involving the physics of an in-flight Frisbee. Matson said he feels his students largely benefit from working on a senior project and thesis. "Students experience independent work, and gain a strong sense of the application of mechanical engineering," he said. Other professors, including Philosophy Professor Nancy Bauer, said, however, that not all students are passionate or mature enough to write a senior thesis. "I'm opposed to the school of thought that students must write a thesis," she said. "I often discourage students from starting a thesis [if I don't think they will do a good job finishing it]." In some departments, such as the Philosophy Department, professors do not approve proposals for theses that are unlikely to pan out. This restriction is in place in the hopes that all students who begin work on theses will end up with quality work. Other departments make sure students are dedicated by having them start the process as early as their junior year. "The Department of Political Science requires that juniors apply in the spring semester to the Honors Thesis Program," Political Science Professor Vickie Sullivan said. "In this way, the department wants to encourage students to begin a dialogue with their potential thesis advisor very early in the process." In general, however, Tufts faculty want to see seniors work on writing a thesis. "Some students produce remarkable work for me," said Wilson. "I've really enjoyed working with them [on their theses]." Some faculty members are impressed by their own students' motivation that they factor in the effort that the student put in into the final grade. "Sympathy can be a factor, but I will only raise the course grade, not the honors awarded to the thesis [based on effort]," Bauer said. "I don't think that it is an issue with the University." According to Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser, professors don't only affect the level of independence that students experience - they also help to shape and direct where the students' research will go. "Students should work on something that turns them on, and the faculty will respect that," Glaser said. "But students don't know about many opportunities, resources, and barricades. Ideally, faculty members should play strong roles." At similar schools, such as the Johns Hopkins University, the undergraduate senior thesis program is slightly different than the one at Tufts, but the trends in terms of drop rate and faculty influence tend to remain the same. "For a few years in the 1990s we tried making the senior thesis a requirement for all majors in the department," Hopkins Professor Sharon Kingsland said. "Students would often procrastinate, fail to start their work early enough, and fail to budget their time, and as a result, we had many panicked students in April who had to be pushed by the faculty to complete the thesis." Kingsland said, however, that making the thesis optional increased the average quality of work, and that seniors tend to stick with it.
Tufts is losing talented students and compromising its position as an elite university because it lacks a need-blind admissions policy. Not only does this make the student body economically homogenous, it also hurts the University's credibility as a leading insitution of higher education. Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin said that when admitting the class of 2008, Asian-American applicants who needed financial aid were not admitted due to budget constraints. When President Larry Bacow was inaugurated in April 2002, he promised to raise endowment and make admissions need-blind, in order to increase the accessibility of a Tufts education. Three years later, the University must stop promising need-blind admissions and instead raise enough funds to make it a reality. Economic diversity is as important as racial diversity because it also brings a variety of perspectives and backgrounds to the classroom, enhancing the educational experience for all. According to Coffin, there were more Asian-American applicants than African-Americans or Latinos, so the admissions department chose to deny admission to the neediest Asian-Americans because that ethnic group would still be well-represented. Since only upper and middle class Asian-American applicants were accepted last year, there is an important part of the Asian-American community missing from the class of 2008. Economically disadvantaged groups, such as Vietnamese, Cambodians or Laotians, would be denied the opportunity to attend Tufts under the current admissions policy. It is unfair for Asian-Americans in particular to bear the brunt of the University's financial difficulties. The admissions office should have spread the effects of a $2 million loss in financial aid funds across all major applicant groups. One group should not have been singled out as Asian-Americans were. This is the only fair way to maintain the economic and racial diversity with the funds available. Achieving need-blind admissions must be the University's first priority, because the caliber of the student body depends on it. Without need-blind admissions, many Tufts students graduate without realizing that most Americans cannot pay the $40,000 price tag without assistance. Economically disadvantaged students bring a different background to a campus filled with elite boarding-school graduates and wealthy international students. Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin said that many Asian-American applicants offered financial aid packages chose to attend other institutions. These students likely chose to attend other schools because they were offered better aid packages. Tufts will continue to lose talented applicants if a need-blind policy is not met, which will negatively affect the University's standing in comparison to peer institutions. Tufts is an elite institution, but it cannot attract the best students to attend if it does not offer competitive financial aid packages. Current and future fundraising efforts must be dedicated to achieving need-blind admissions so that Tufts can assemble the best possible student body and maintain its position among the top American universities.
March has arrived, people. All the Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa and New Year's hoopla doesn't even compare to what we're about to experience. March Madness really is the most wonderful time of the year. With less than a week left until the regular season ends, it's time for Tufts to jump on the March Madness bandwagon. Big (East) Surprise of the Week: Pittsburgh's 72-50 defeat of No. 5 Boston College (BC). No one really expected the 24th-ranked Panthers to beat red-hot Boston College on Monday night after dropping three games in a row. Coming off three consecutive conference losses to Villanova, West Virginia and the University of Connecticut, the Panthers desperately needed a turnaround. BC was exactly what the doctor ordered. The first half of the contest was hard-fought by both teams, and Pitt took a slim three-point lead heading into the locker room. Panther coach Jamie Dixon must have said something at halftime, because Pitt exploded in the second half for 44 points, outscoring the Eagles by 19 points in the final 20 minutes. The Panthers' depth was never more evident than on Monday night. Pitt had five players in double figures, led by sophomore Antonio Graves who dropped 13. Chris Taft also chipped in big for Pitt with 12 points and eight boards while point-man Carl Krauser had a solid night at the helm with 10 points, seven boards, and seven dimes. Pitt's unselfish play led to the team's solid 48.3 percent shooting from the field, in contrast to BC's 31.1 percent. Bigger Surprise of the Week: On Feb. 22, a normal regular season game between the Saint Joe's Hawks and the Temple Owls turned out to be anything but normal. Frustrated with how his team was playing and with the fact that the game had already been determined, Temple coach John Chaney, known for his hot temper, did the unthinkable. He sent one of his players into the game and instructed him to physically harm a member of the Saint Joe's squad. This move would not have been so scrutinized by the media had the Saint Joe's player not sustained injury as a result of Chaney's instructions. John Bryant, a 6'7" senior forward for the Hawks, was clobbered by a Temple player near the conclusion of the game and suffered a broken arm, effectively ending his college basketball career and ending his hopes of playing in the NCAA tournament. Since the incident, the media has attacked Chaney. College basketball suspended Chaney for one game, but after the media complained that one game simply wasn't enough for the severity of his actions, Temple extended the suspension to three games. Chaney himself stepped onto the national media stage, recusing himself from the Atlantic-10 tournament, publicly apologizing to the Hawks, and offering to pay Bryant's medical bills. Public outcry has not yet subsided, and college basketball is abuzz with rumors of a possible step-down by Chaney from his 23-year successful coaching position at Temple. On the bubble: With Selection Sunday, the day on which the NCAA tournament bracket is revealed, just around the corner, keep an eye on these key teams that need to prove themselves down the stretch to make the tournament. ACC: Maryland and Georgia Tech. Big East: Notre Dame, Georgetown and West Virginia. Big 12: Texas and Texas A&M. Big 10: Minnesota. Conference USA: DePaul and Marquette. Pac-10: UCLA. SEC: Vanderbilt. Mid-major teams that could end up getting at-large bids: Vermont, Holy Cross, George Washington, and New Mexico. The Greatest in All of Sports: Sunday. March 6. 4:00 p.m. Duke travels to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to take on the Tar Heels in the greatest rivalry in all of sports in a game as steeped in hype as it is in its implications for tourney selections. Duke beat UNC at home earlier in the season and this game is the last regular season game for both of these teams. The game is being televised on CBS so there's really no excuse not to watch.
Just to make sure you aren't falling asleep out there in "Daily Reader Land," I am giving you Seven Questions this week with a little twist. As you may already be able to tell, there is actually only one question, and five respondents. I'll let them tell you the rest.1) Not to open up any wounds or anything, but without any more football or football training in your lives, what have you been doing with your time?Kevin Holland, ex-wide receiver First off, I would hardly say there is no more training in our lives. If you are not aware - except that you are - most of us are off to Mexico or Florida in just over two weeks. This is crunch time, we have to work harder then ever. [Senior defensive end Chris] Lawrence is trying to drop weight like it's going out of style, [Senior offensive lineman Rich] Aronson is in the gym at least twice a day, and the rest of us have been doing the beach work-out for a good six weeks now ... except Jon Hooson. And I hate to say it, but you haven't been in the gym much yourself. To make up for the no football part, we have recently signed up for Tufts University Flag Football league. Now our team is stacked, so I would assume our record will be better then 2-6. We also have a secret weapon. Ben Bloom may take some snaps behind center. "He sees the field very well and is an excellent play maker," Coach Samko told me. I think we have filled the void very well, keeping so busy, this is actually the first time I have even thought about not playing or training anymore ... except four times last week, and 12 the week before.Jason Casey, quarterback and captain While life without football has been almost not worth living, I have been able to find solace in the "post-football life regiment" created and mastered by one Donald James Proulx upon the completion of his career. It's simple, really: remain angry and bitter at all costs while fueling an intense poker addiction with plenty of Texas Hold 'em at Chester Ave.Benjamin "Body Bag Blue Cheese" Bloom, center Actually Tim, my football career at Tufts isn't over. I created the Tufts Jumbos in Dynasty mode in NCAA 2005 Football on my PS2. I created all the seniors too. I did make a position change or two, making myself the starting QB instead of Jay Casey - he's the backup and starting holder on the field goal squad. I just won the Heisman this year. I guess I'm still living the dream as a Tufts football player, and even though it is just a video game, it still feels real to me.David Hatch, offensive lineman and captain As many people know, I still spend a lot of time in the gym because I work there ... actually I like to see all these skinny little kids wearing wife beaters and gloves lifting their 25 lb. dumbells. Anyways, I would have to say that now, with all this free time on my hands, I can finally work out that one special muscle that, unfortunately during football season, I didn't have any time or energy to use, that one muscle that would normally get a lot of exercise living in DU, that special muscle many of you ladies know personally ... that's right ... my brain.Chris Lawrence, defensive tackle and captain I've been walking around campus with an orange UNICEF container collecting pennies, as well as distributing safe sex literature to the freshman girls of Wren Hall. -by Tim Whelan
What do you want to be when you grow up?" Do you remember that question? Because I sure do. And I remember every answer I had (usually it was "a firetruck" or "Grover"). But like Trent said in "Swingers," "Baby's all growns up." Nigh three months I will be out and done with this place, and perhaps even a functioning member of society. So what's next when I become a grown-up this May 21? The answer is: I DON'T KNOW. I just don't know. And it's not like I haven't been thinking about this - I have. In fact, since the age of four I have been thinking about it, and since the age of four I have always had an answer. Until now. Below is a chronological progression of my ever-changing career ambitions. Age 4: Garbage man. Simply the coolest, sweetest job any four-year-old could ever want. You get to ride around hanging off the back of a huge truck all day picking things up and throwing them into a big bin. Every morning I would stand on the couch and lean against the living room window to watch some big, greasy guy with a moustache dump our trash into the back of the truck. He looked like he was having a great time. But there are negatives to the sanitation engineering business. Sure you get to ride on the back of a cool truck all day, but what about waking up at 4 a.m.? What about the exposure to disease? What about having to marry an ugly chick because, let's face it, hot chicks don't dig garbage men? But at four that was where my life was heading. Age 6: Archaeologist/paleontologist. I have a feeling I was not alone in this. Our generation enjoyed more media exposure to the field at a young age than any other generation in the history of mankind: "Jurassic Park," "Indiana Jones," "Denver, the Last Dinosaur," and of course "Jem and the Holograms." I could tell you everything about dinosaurs: the average length of a diplodocus from head to tail, the number of teeth in the average allosaurus' mouth, and how many triceratops it took to screw in a light bulb. (Four, but it's a trick question: they didn't have light bulbs back then, stupid.) My kindergarten teacher Mrs. Thomas, bless her heart, even gave me a fossilized shark tooth for my birthday. I promptly took it home, buried it, and subsequently conducted an excavation. Why a fossilized shark tooth would be found one-and-a-half feet deep in a suburban Connecticut backyard I do not know, but man, was I excited to find it. A few years later I realized that archaeology doesn't pay very well and requires a lot of reading. Two huge negatives. Age 12: Ballerina. Middle school was a very confusing two years for me. I don't really want to talk about it. Age 14: Phil Collins. Every child has a "rock star" phase and I was no different. But let's face it, after playing the trombone for two years in fifth and sixth grade, I was no Jack Morrison or Michael Jagger, no sir. So I aimed low. What's lower than Phil Collins? Not to disparage the super-talented rock-stud and former Genesis front-man, but heroin-addicted-groupie-abusing-self-destructive musical genius he wasn't. So I wanted to be Phil Collins and spent a few years writing really cheesy progressive rock and '80s pop music. And before you judge me, my friend who wanted to be Billy Corgan shaved his head, started a band, and sang really melodramatic, whiney alt-rock. I ask of you, which is worse? Age 18: Lawyer. After realizing being Phil Collins was an almost impossible career aspiration (it turns out you can't actually assume someone's identity), I turned to the most noble of noble occupations. And after the clergy turned me away - apparently you have to actually BE Catholic to be a priest (I'll stay away from any Catholic priest jokes. The Catholic church deserves a break, even in spite of centuries of persecution of the Jews, its rigid inability to accept scientific fact, the Crusades, the Inquisition...you know what, screw it. Catholic priests like to touch little boys.) I turned towards an even more dignified calling: LAW. As Shakespeare once said, "it is noble to be in the service of God, yet it is nobler still to be the benefactor of man's quarrels, and charge them $200 an hour for consultation in addition to courtroom fees and, in certain cases, travel expenses." Okay, he never said that, but imagine if he did. So law was where Saj was left the last he checked. Then one magic day earlier this year he spun around in a circle three times, smacked his head against a wall, and found himself at... Age 20: Employed. No more specific ambitions. No more garbage men, ballerinas, Phil Collinses, or lawyers. Just a job. That's all I want. And I suppose that's the moral of today's column. You can't always choose what you want to be. We all have certain limitations in what we can and cannot do. If I had my choice I'd be a professional baseball player or Miami druglord. Or yes, even Phil Collins. Instead I'm just going to peruse MonsterTrak until I find something that sounds even a remote bit better than death. Now, if you'll excuse me, my Grover application is due in a few days, and I have to finish my cover letter.Saj Pothiawala is a senior who is majoring in economics. He can be reached via e-mail at sajid.pothiawala@tufts.edu.
Congratulations are in order for producer Mark Burnett and his baby, "Survivor," as this season's edition in the Pacific islands of Palau marks the show's 10th go-round. As the show hits double digits, the obvious problem for Burnett is how to keep the show fresh and interesting. After the third installment, "Survivor: Africa," the show took a downward turn with Thailand and the Marquesas, only to be revitalized with "Survivor: Amazon" and the Pearl Islands (thanks, of course, to Rupert). With "All-Stars" turning out to be something of a disappointment, and a humdrum last season on Vanuatu, "Survivor" is at another crossroads. Two main keys to the success of "Survivor" have always been innovation and an eclectic cadre of characters. Starting with Vanuatu's finale, CBS had been hyping the new twist that this time the players would be stranded on the island with no provisions - no fire, no rice, no pots, no blankets, no fishing hooks - or so they made it seem. Unfortunately, this premise was a mere ploy, as the contestants did receive a pair of machetes, a map to water, and a bag of sneakers. In addition, on the second day the survivors participated in a reward/immunity challenge in which materials for fire, cooking, and shelter were available to the winner. While "Survivor" kind of hoodwinked us with their Palau marketing campaign, there were plenty of twists in the first episode that compensated for the deception. As the contestants rowed to the island, there were the two immunity necklaces up for grabs to the first man and woman who could snatch them. Also surprising was the fact that when the players reached the shore, they had yet to be split into tribes, leading to an uneasy period of both shelter and alliance building. Of course, the tribes were eventually split, but it was how they were divided that was so exciting. The two winners of immunity, Jolanda and Ian, were made virtual dodgeball captains and each had to pick someone of the opposite sex for their tribe. That person then chose the next member, continuing on in schoolyard style until only two players were left. Those two remaining players, 57-year-old Wanda and 23-year-old Texan Jonathan (the first male to make a run for the immunity, and in the process signing his execution order), were booted off the island, lasting less than a day on Palau. While the varied rules and regulations have worked well thus far, the jury is still out on the current crop of survivors. After two episodes, there is no Rupert, no larger-than-life character who captures the hearts of viewers instantly. This is not to say that there aren't any interesting personalities or that the show is doomed, but that the stars are still emerging. Not helping matters is that two of the most potentially colorful characters, Wanda and Jolanda, or the "andas" as I like to call them, were ousted in the first episode. Wanda, a school teacher from Pennsylvania, sealed her fate minutes into the game by belting out a "Survivor"-themed tune while the rest of the players struggled to row the boat ashore. Jolanda, a 39-year-old lawyer from Texas, demonstrated a strong body as well as a strong personality, and her tribemates were obviously nervous about Jolanda becoming "Survivor'"s Omarosa. Hairstylist Coby positioned himself as this season's Richard Hatch, or at least he attempted to be in the first episode. Luckily for him and his unnaturally fast-growing facial hair, he toned down his scheming. Unfortunately, less plotting means less entertainment. Clearly, the producers thought Angie, a bartender from New Orleans, would be an engaging, exotic character, especially considering the tattoos that cover much of her body, including her chest. Last picked for the Ulong tribe and nearly voted out in the first episode, she proved in the second episode's reward challenge that she has more strength and agility than the other top-heavy waifs on the squad. A personal favorite thus far is Willard, a 57-year-old lawyer from the state of Washington who looks just as cuddly as he is curmudgeonly (and extra points for the stud earring). Also showing potential to break out are Janu, a Vegas showgirl who is somehow still wearing jeans, and NYC firefighter Tom, who must be embellishing that accent (he lives only 20 minutes from my hometown, and no one talks like that). Finally, a safe bet for quality one-liners is Alabama steelworker James, a slimmed-down, more coherent version of "Survivor: Africa"'s Big Tom. Of course, the big question is who's going to win the million, but it's really too early to tell who has the best shot. Even if someone clearly stood out, you never know what kind of twists and turns Mark Burnett will dream up. If we've learned anything after nine seasons of "Survivor" though, it is that it's not about the million, it's about how we get there.
The Tufts E-Men came out strong at their first tournament of the season, but only managed to notch a .500 record as they defeated three of the six teams they faced. The Atlantis Tournament was held in Salisbury, Maryland on Feb. 26 and 27 and, despite the average record, Tufts displayed the strength that enabled them to reach Nationals last year. On the first day of the tournament, the team beat Salisbury University 14-12, but lost in close matches to both the University of Pennsylvania 13-9 and Rutgers University 10-9. The next day brought better luck, however, as the E-Men routed the United States Naval Academy 15-8 and St. Mary's College of Maryland 11-3. In the tournament's quarterfinals, Williams College defeated Tufts 9-6 to eliminate the E-Men. Tufts was one of 32 schools invited to the Atlantis Tournament, with opponents ranging from nearby Northeastern University to as far west as Michigan State University. Williams would ultimately win the tournament championship, after successfully defeating Carnegie-Mellon University in the finals by a score of 15-8. As the season continues, the E-Men look ahead to the College Southerns Tournament which will be held in Statesboro, Georgia on Mar. 19, 2005. As a club team, the E-men must pay their own travel fees for trips such as this one. Deeper in the season, the Yale Cup will be held a little closer to home in New Haven, Connecticut on Apr. 9 and 10 and will be another important venture for the E-Men. The top 16 teams in the nation earn a berth to the Ultimate Players Association's National Championships. The UPA has yet to come out with any 2005 rankings, but Tufts did qualify for last year's tournament and finished with a composite ninth/10th place finish. "We lost nine seniors but have a strong team coming back and a very good chance of making nationals again," sophomore Chris Skipper said. The past five years, the road to Nationals has consisted of wins at the Metro Boston Section, including victories over rivals Harvard and MIT. From there, appearances in the regional tournament propelled the E-Men to Nationals. Tufts is currently ranked 54th out of 222 teams based on the RRI rankings, which take into account schedule strength and margin of victory or defeat, but these rankings are based only on the first six games of the season and are relatively obsolete at this point. The ultimate team is divided into the A team and B team. Members of both squads will be traveling to Georgia for spring break. The B team held an indoor scrimmage last Saturday against Harvard, and, according to senior captain Sam Kortz, the team is beginning to come together. "From our first scrimmage there are number of things we did well and others that we need to improve on," said sophomore Jesse McCormick, a member of the B team, "but I'm confident we will get to where we want to be." Following the College Southerns, both teams will head to Tybee Island in Georgia where the A team will hold daily practices and the B team will attend the High Tide. The team finished with a 33-8 record last year, so this season's 3-3 start comes as something of a disappointment, but the season is still young and the E-Men look forward to continuing last season's performance. "It's early in the season, and most of the teams we played are peaking early," Skipper said. "We have a lot of potential, and in a couple of months we should be on top again and peaking where we should be."- David Pomerantz contributed to this article.
Senior Armen Nercessian's worst fears will come to life in Friday's performance of the "The Night Visitor." Or so he says. The show, written by Nercessian and directed by sophomore Caitlin Johnson, is this semester's major production for student theater group Bare Bodkin. Starring senior Max Dionne, freshman Sam Dupont, and sophomore Chelsea Toder, it will be performed this Friday and Saturday in the Crane Room. The play itself is an eerie compilation of images that derive their somewhat random and surreal quality from Nercessian's own dreams, or rather nightmares. The writer found inspiration for this rattling piece by examining his own fears as realized through his most vivid imaginings. The result is compelling, as it leaves the audience feeling deeply effected, although somewhat blind-sided, as if awaking from a dream. "My dreams are a frightening and terrible place," said Nercessian, "filled with fire. They're not a safe place." Definitely not. Like the play itself, Nercessian's writing process was unsystematic but effective nonetheless. Inspired by friend and senior Taylor Shann, Nercessian had never intended to write a play and certainly never intended to have it performed. Originally planned as an entry in the NYC Fringe Festival, Nercessian worked under pressure to meet the festival's deadline and wrote the play in under three weeks. Only after finishing did Shann let on that there had been no deadline and it was all a ploy to see Nercessian's potential talent as a playwright come to fruition. Nercessian then spent another month editing "The Night Visitor" before being convinced by Caitlin Johnson to actually consider performing the piece. And since handing it over to Johnson, Nercessian has had little to do with the play's actual production process. Nercessian described his apprehension about performing the piece as "those playwright jitters" and decided to let the piece go without any specific intention of how it should affect those watching it. "It's about a lot of different things, but I don't think there's any message." Well, judging by the play's themes, the audience, and even the script, might argue otherwise. "Visitor" is set in a totalitarian society where the struggle between individuality, community, and duty is apparent. An older couple, Iggy (Dupont) and Mary (Toder), are citizens in this world that is referred to throughout the play as being consumed by darkness. The play opens with a disconcerting silence that sets the tone and keeps the audience on edge throughout the remainder of the piece. Iggy and Mary are awaiting this night's visitor. There is a sense of urgency, but the audience, and sometimes the characters themselves, aren't sure exactly what they're waiting for. It is clear from the outset that something in this dreamlike world is amiss, though no one is quite sure what it is. When the visitor, Curdy (Dionne), does arrive, the audience's confusion is played out within the script. Iggy asks a disgruntled and frazzled Curdy "Do you understand?" "No," is the response. "You will." So goes the mood as random outbursts of emotion and drastic change within each character constantly disconcert the viewer and reset the play's tone and direction. The audience is never sure which character is good or bad or what ideology each represents in the play. And this makes sense, as each character is intimately linked to the others. "There are a lot of stories in the show," said Johnson. "But they needn't be about separate people" Dionne reiterated this: "The point is not specificity of time or place. It's that overwhelming feeling of loneliness." In many ways, as Nercessian may or may not have intended, "The Night Visitor" leaves the audience very affected, though not by any particular point or aspect of the production. Reflecting its source material, the show is like having a very powerful dream, one whose contents may be forgotten but not the feeling it evokes upon waking.
The New England Women's Studies Association and the Women's Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth are hosting their annual Spring Conference this Friday and Saturday. This year, the theme of the conference is "Performing Activism." The main focus of the conference is defining activism and how it is carried out within interdisciplinary perspectives and the community. At the conference, Elaine Theodore, Tufts' Violence Prevention Education Coordinator, will be presenting a project focusing on the concept of secrecy as advocacy. Although the concept of secrecy is an unusual approach to understanding sexuality, Theodore is working to explore ways in which it can be comforting - even liberating. "My proposal asks, 'Can secrecy about some aspect of one's sexuality be advocacy in some way?'" said Theodore, who has been working at Tufts since August of 2004 on the Campus Violence Prevention Project, which is currently in its fourth year. Fueled by her background in the performing arts and her interest in women's studies, Theodore's Friday presentation will feature videotapes, monologues and voice-overs of students and community members discussing their once-secret sexual experiences. She has conducted several interviews with various people and said she has received "several interesting perspectives." These experiences and perspectives range from exploration of one's own sexuality and coming out as gay or lesbian, to sexual abuse and molestation. "I made sure that whoever participates already had some 'healing work' done, so that it's empowering for them to tell their story," Theodore said. To clarify what exactly she means by secrecy as advocacy, Theodore gave the example of a high school student she knew of who was being molested by her mother's boyfriend. The girl hadn't figured out a way out of the house, but she'd been confiding in her guidance counselor about the situation. "In this way, her secret was 'safe with someone else,'" Theodore said. "Though she couldn't get out of the house, it was empowering for her to tell her story to someone else." Theodore also cited examples of young students conflicted about coming out and asked whether, in the interest of safety, it's better for them to "stay in" instead. She places emphasis on the idea of secrecy as gaining control rather than holding back. Theodore points to a quote by author Sissels Bok in the book "Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation" that says, "Secrecy for plans is needed, not only to protect their formation, but also to develop them, to change them and at times execute them." "I'm not so interested in the morality piece, but rather the social implications and functions," Theodore said. She admitted that the concept of secrecy "can be seen as counterintuitive, and isn't necessarily healing for everyone." "But the concept of intimacy, of no one else knowing, can be powerful in itself," she said. "I think of it as safekeeping, healing, or empowering - for some people, for some time." The conference is open to students and professors in the New England area who are interested in women's studies. It is taking place tomorrow and Saturday at U-Mass Dartmouth. For more information, visit http://ase.tufts.edu/womenstudies/newsa/conference/.
The Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine lost an intern in a skiing accident this past Friday, Feb. 25. Heather Donahue, age 29, died while skiing at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming. According to witnesses who talked to the Boston Globe, Donahue stopped on the slope to wait for her husband when a 16-year-old snowboarder lost control and slammed into her. Donahue sustained massive injuries to her head and immediately lost consciousness on Thursday afternoon. She was airlifted to a hospital near the mountain and died the next afternoon from those injuries, according to the Lowell Sun. The snowboarder who hit Donahue, a Maryland teen whose name has not yet been released to authorities, now faces manslaughter charges and authorities are considering attempting to charge him as an adult for his actions. He could receive a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for his actions, according to the Boston Globe. "[Heather] has brought a sense of caring, humility and love for family and life to the community," Philip Kosch, Dean of the Tufts Veterinary School, said in a statement released Monday, Feb. 28. Donahue lived in Shrewsbury, Mass. and graduated from Chelmsford High School in 1993. Donahue attended Colgate University in Hamilton, NY for her undergraduate education, and then Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences for graduate school. Donahue moved from Colorado to Grafton, Mass. for an internship in Emergency Medicine at the Vet School in July 2004, and has worked there since, according to Kosch. Donahue worked in many different aspects of veterinary medicine in her short career, including both small and large animals, wildlife, and leadership roles in veterinary organizations. "One night, a puppy came in with a broken leg and was going to need expensive surgery," Matthew Eyles, a fourth-year student at the Vet School who worked with Donahue on an emergency shift, said. "The clients wanted to take the puppy home so they could shop for a less expensive surgical option ... but they didn't want to pay for pain medication. Heather really went to bat for this animal ... Heather was not a shy advocate for her patient's welfare." "She was beginning her life," Nancy Donahue, Donahue's mother, told the Globe in an interview. A remembrance ceremony for Donahue will take place in Meredith, NH this Saturday. "It is painful for us to lose such a promising young veterinarian and fine person in our midst," said Kosch in his press release. "We all have Heather and her family in our hearts, thoughts and prayers."
