Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Monday, April 13, 2026
The Print Edition Print Subscription
Donate | About | Join Us
Advertise | Submit a Tip
Subscribe to our newsletters

Archives

The Setonian
News

Tim Whelan | Some Kind of Wonderful

February 22

There are only so many things in this life that you can be sure of without actually seeing them happen. I can think of two off the top of my head. 1) Some guy in Saugus brought his authentic Varitek jersey to a tailor and got a captain's "C" embroidered onto it. 2) There is a rap video being filmed somewhere with a Nolan Ryan old-school Astros jersey prominently involved. The "jersey-fying" of America appears to be at an all-time high. And it is not limited to rappers, as has appeared to be the case for a few years now. The New Jersey Nets should just change their name to the New Jerseys and save everyone's breath. Originally named after a piece of equipment, the new moniker for East Rutherford's favorite ballers would pay homage to a part of hoops and pop culture which now appears as integral as the basket. But the Nets are not the worst culprits. The Mavericks now have alternate unis designed by P-Diddy. The Cavaliers, capitalizing on their meal ticket, Lebron James, have unveiled at least five different jersey designs, knowing those will fly off the shelves more than the Terrell Brandon and Danny Ferry throwbacks did. Freshly crowned Slam Dunk Champ Josh Smith broke out a Dominique throwback (you know, the ones that looked like a pack of Marlboro Reds). If not for the jersey craze, 'Nique would be just a faded memory, limited to highlight reels. And in the NFL this year, all I can say is ... lots of orange. In October, the fad hit a little closer to home, off the courts and playing fields. On an appearance on the "Best Damn Sports Show Period" shortly after the World Series, Sox hurler Curt Schilling showed up draped in a Ben Roethlisberger Steelers jersey. And this was during the regular season week the Pats were about to matchup with Pittsburgh, no less. The uproar may not have registered in the sports pages or on the news, but the reaction on sports radio was downright embarrassing. I swear people had just forgotten that this man had just hand delivered the city the proudest moment in its already distinguished history. The Sox are done, so what can we whine about? He could have been rocking a Jets fireman hat and a Jeter gamer for all I cared at the time, but my sentiments were not completely shared. The venom was spewing over the color of the shirt a man was wearing, which got me to thinking: Why do people wear them at all? He said on the show that he had grown up a Steelers fan. Fine with me. I was more disappointed by the fact that he was wearing any jersey, let alone what team his selection is partial to. My new rules are as follows: If I'm not rapping or 12 years old, I won't wear a jersey. Of course, there is the exception of Schilling turning a 180 in the eyes of the (way too many) people who cared about his prior clothing choice, when he arrived at Spring Training in his Tedy Bruschi shirt. His gesture was heartfelt and I respect it, but that shirt can be the exception. Yes, I'm telling Curt Schilling how not to dress. "But Tim, wasn't it you who...?" And yes, those of you who are familiar with me may know that I have been a jersey wearer in my time. Take a gander at Whelan family pictures, circa 1994, and there is a good chance that I will be decked out in a teal Larry Johnson replica or a UMass hoops model with the #15 on it (Dick Vitale told me Lou Roe would be a lottery pick, so I jumped at the chance to have a piece of history. How was I supposed to know then that Vitale is a kook?) Even as recently as two years ago, I fell victim to my own boredom and foolish spending habits and nabbed a powder-blue Doug Flutie Chargers number off of NFL.com. Ill-advised indeed, especially to absentmindedly have it sent to my house, with the bill. No matter the legend that Flutie holds in this region, and in the hearts of my father and mother, who both grew up in Flutie's hometown of Natick. "Why was there a $70 shirt being sent from San Diego?" was the gist of my parents angst. And I couldn't come up with a justifiable answer for the purchase, besides "Have you ever heard of Flutie Magic?" The purchase was a bit premature. I've worn it all of three times, and two of those times I didn't leave the house. I don't need that much attention, but apparently some do, like Warren Sapp. He walked into Veteran's Stadium before the NFC Championship Game in 2003 donning a Chuck Bednarik Eagles throwback. Not only was he asking for attention, but it could be seen as a slap to the face of a whole fan base. On this campus, I, along with many others, appear to be watching the jersey fad from a distance. It seems the only times we will see representation of our favorite stars is at a frat party where that is the theme or at Good Times Emporium in Somerville, where before a recent trip I placed the over/under on Tom Brady shirts I would see at 50. The under was the right call, but not by much. The lack of jerseys, be they authentic or replica, around campus means one thing: rocking the laundry of your favorite player or team might be just a bit ... much. So all things considered, you probably won't see me in public with the Flutie gamer in full effect ... until my first rap video, that is.

The Setonian
News

Hongkers | Jon Schubin

February 22

First impressions can be misleading. When I visited the 10,000 Buddha Temple in the fall, it seemed perfect. The temple was at the top of a winding path that is lined by colorful Arhan Buddha statues. There were laughing statues, crying statues and praying statues. All together, there were 500, and they were all unique. The trip to the temple was a journey from the city into the country. The path began at an entrance to an Ikea, and ended in a pleasant forest. At the top of the staircase, there was a row of buildings. Some were ornate-looking temples, but others were abandoned. There was a large colonial home, with rocks thrown through its windows and graffiti on its door. Right next door was a temple that contained a large standing Buddha. There were rusting oil drums everywhere. Best of all was the main temple, a rectangular building where well over the requisite 10,000 Buddhas line every wall from floor to ceiling. Each one had a small orange light, which flickered like a candle. A stereo system played a long, slow chant from the back of the room. I saw it as a set of modern ruins - something wonderful rising out of the city. It was somewhat neglected, but still existed. It was wonderful, completely unlike the busy commercial centers of Hong Kong Island. I celebrated by stopping at Ikea on the way back down, pondering dharma over Swedish meatballs. This week, I made a return visit. I was motivated because I heard rumors that the temple was closing and that parts of it were now in rough shape. I also wanted to find out the real story behind the temple and why it is in Hong Kong. I arrived to find that rather than deteriorating, the temple was in better shape than it had been several months earlier. A missing Buddha statue had been replaced. The rusted barrels were still there, but in lesser quantities than the fall. There was some construction equipment about, although it appeared to have been unused for some time. It didn't make any sense. I went into the small restaurant next to the main temple, ordered a bun, and went looking for some information. "Do you know when the barrels will be moved?" The older woman who was working at the restaurant stared at me blankly. I remembered I was in an outlying area of Hong Kong - English was at a premium. She at first had no response, but after a minute she pointed me back inside the temple, where I found a young woman who looked to be around university age. She was smartly dressed, with a shiny silver ski jacket and high heels. She greeted me enthusiastically - a big "Hello." She would be the one who would give me the story behind the temple. By this time, I was impatient. I unleashed a barrage of questions about the history of the temple, the meaning of the buildings and the garbage. The woman understood some English, but unfortunately, she was unable to talk about the temple's religious symbolism. What she did tell me, though, was not what I wanted to hear. The temple no longer had a monastery, and she did not study at the temple. Rather, the place was now open to visitors and tourists, whom she was there to assist. The woman working inside the temple also gave me an informative orange flyer that said the temple was founded in 1949 by Reverend Yuet Kai, a man who "wandered" to Hong Kong in 1933. The land was donated by a rich Buddhist merchant. The little tiny Buddha statues did not represent the dead, as I had thought earlier. Instead, they could be purchased by anyone simply for "wishes." As I later learned on the temple's website, it costs about $450 for a Buddha inscribed with a name, and $800 for one inscribed with a name and a corresponding wish. The state of the temple was due primarily to a landslide that occurred in 1997. Several temple buildings were heavily damaged, some of which have not reopened. The Arhan statues, which lined the staircase, were even less ancient than the rest of the temple. They were added in 2002, because the current abbot wanted to "glorify the monastery." The group was also working to clean up damage from the landslide. The woman, who never gave me her name, cleared up the facts behind the temple. But the facts ruined the mystique. The charm of my first visit was that it seemed so accidental, a place that just happened to be there. Now, with the knowledge of the abbot, the tour groups, the restoration and the attempts to "glorify" the place, it just seemed like another tourist trap. I walked down from the temple feeling disappointed. My spirits were only boosted when I discovered that part of my original visit had not changed - the Swedish meatballs at Ikea were still delicious.

The Setonian
News

Theater Review | One-man play 'Moon' is out of this world

February 22

Mirrors, spacemen, puppets, blinding light, and a dead goldfish. All of these elements are creatively incorporated into Quebecois Director Robert Lepage's production entitled, "the far side of the moon." Showing at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, the production is as otherworldly as the mysterious moon itself. The one-man play centers on the relationship between two brothers, comparing their relationship to the cosmos and space in general. An array of diverse characters is played by one very talented man, Yves Jacques. Jacques' portrayal of each character in the show, man or woman, is unique and comprehensive. Depending on the various characters he depicts, he is able to adopt a new speech and movement type during each scene. The story opens on one brother, Philippe, who is working on his thesis. He is specifically interested in the topic of the Soviet-American space race and he even goes to the extent of describing a cosmonaut as "someone who is inspired," while an astronaut is simply "someone who is well-funded." The other brother, Andre, is a weatherman for the local television news program. He has a family of his own, and is somewhat more self-absorbed. The brothers constantly run into disagreements about their varied life philosophies. Despite Jacques' ability, in some scenes the play is an unconvincing conversation that doesn't seem to be going anywhere. In these scenes, it would be enhanced if there were actors playing each part separately as opposed to Jacques constantly playing against himself. Director Lepage consistently works to create dynamic and groundbreaking theatrical performances; he is known for using technologically advanced designs. This production is unique in that the stage elements are actually projected onto the stage, like holograms, allowing for a certain amount of flexibility. The sets can be more elaborate without the laborious task of moving set pieces. "The far side of the moon" doesn't lose it's historical context throughout, even while focusing on the character's inner confusion. Actual historical footage was played repeatedly in order to solidify various points where the space race was compared to the brothers and their own conflicts. Lepage also used puppets quite frequently during the show to provide yet another unusual and creative detail. After the death of his mother, the more sensitive brother, Philippe, is visibly distraught as an intricate ballet begins. Dressed in his mother's clothing, he enters a laundromat and begins to dance. As he proceeds to empty the laundry machine, he slowly pulls a little spaceman out of the washer. It floats in the air as Philippe grasps it in his arms and cradles it. While it sounds bizarre, the scene is just right in symbolizing Philippe's distress over his mother's death. Lepage creates moments like these that keep the audience intrigued by depicting what the characters feel on an abstract level, even though this technique made some of the dream sequences difficult to understand. The show was certainly an interesting and beautiful production. It flowed seamlessly and allowed the audience to experience something unique and pleasant. The idea that all of those varied themes could come together to represent one idea is astonishing. The show leaves audience members both stunned and perplexed. Lepage's thorough use of symbolism and metaphors help the audience to actively think during the performance. It is not simply a play in which actors entertain; instead, Lepage forces the audience to grasp the tumult in the characters.

The Setonian
News

Portrait of the artist | Tom McMillan

February 22

Dominoes is a game about continuity and similarity as Tom McMillan demonstrates on a makeshift coffee table in his fourth floor West room, shuffling tiles and rearranging their configuration. But these dominoes are slightly different. His own concept and creation, the set of tiles is glazed porcelain, adorned with silk-screened images that display evocative depictions of black Americans with high-profile and continually changing characters such as Condoleezza Rice, Bill Cosby and Johnny Cochran. This domino set is the most recent work for the artist and his most socially significant project yet. The South Carolina-born sophomore wanted to represent figures within the black and white American social paradigm whose personas were, as he termed, difficult "to pin down." Likewise, McMillan himself is somewhat difficult to pin down. When asked about defining moments in his artistic career, he'd rather recall his experience watching the Sox in Game 3 of the last ALCS instead. When asked about his high school, his answer is muddled by the fact that he has attended both public and private. And when questioned about his hometown, again he must explain that he has roughly two of them. A part of the Museum of Fine Arts School five-year, dual-degree program with Tufts, the one-time painter has begun to explore other forms of art, from his foray into clay to his enrollment in the Ex College's "Making Movies" class. The 20-year-old McMillan has only recently made the jump from what he described as "male-dominated abstract expressionism in which the artist is the mouthpiece for a universal experience." McMillan felt that, as a teen trying to tackle such a "cerebral" art form, his work lacked authenticity at such a young age. "I was 15! I wondered whether it was legitimate that I was a 'mouthpiece for a universal experience,'" McMillan said. Regarding his aspirations for the future, McMillan, like any other college student, jokes that he would be better able to comment on the subject "10 years from now." McMillan is similar to any other Tufts student. His walls are covered with posters of "The Simpsons," rapper Fabolous, and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." He sports a "Big Papi" T-shirt and fashionably thick black glasses. And he could even be said to have settled on Tufts as his "safety school" - though in his case, any university would have fit that description. "Art is not for the faint of heart," McMillan said, "which makes artists doubt themselves. You're never sure whether you're good enough." McMillan, who is pursuing an English major as well, is only half-joking when he remarks that he's attending Tufts as a back-up. He's considered journalism, which is something of a tradition in his family. The son of two journalists, he has been deeply affected by the work of his father who died when he was just three years old. George McMillan, a civil rights reporter in the 1940's, was active in the movement, taking part in the Million Man March on Washington in 1963. With both Southern and Northern roots, McMillan and his mother live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in a plantation house in St. Helena, South Carolina, which he visits during vacations. His experience growing up in such a historically significant area of Reconstruction Era America has brought race issues to his attention. Though some may question McMillan's choice of subject for the dominoes, he is confident in his work. "It's something that is part of my life, living in that area. It's not like race in America is just a black issue," he said. "It's not like it's their responsibility to fix. It's everyone's responsibility." McMillan is aware that his dominoes make a strong statement. "They're overtly social, and more pop-arty, and I like that," McMillan explained. "It's not about the museum. It doesn't need the museum." Though he's created approximately seven paintings, most of which are roughly three feet by five feet, McMillan is looking forward to learning new mediums. "Every art has a language," he says, "and you have to learn that language to say something important within it."

The Setonian
News

Balance | Intro to food science

February 22

Do you know ... ... Why wine contains no more than 12 percent alcohol?When grape juice is fermented, yeast converts the sugar in the grapes into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The yeast typically used for wine-making (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) will churn out alcohol until the level reaches 12 percent, at which point the yeast cells die of alcohol toxicity. (For comparison, humans die at a blood alcohol content of 0.3 percent to 0.6 percent.) No matter how sweet the grapes, it's the yeast's tolerance, not the amount of sugar that determines the alcohol content of wine.... That aspartame and sugar have the same number of calories, gram for gram?It's just that the artificial sweetener aspartame is 180 times sweeter than sugar. Diet soft drinks and sugar-free candy are virtually calorie-free because such a miniscule amount of aspartame is required to provide intense sweetness.... Where sugar comes from?Nearly all of the sugar in the United States comes from another root vegetable: the sugar beet. All plants store the sugar made from photosynthesis in their roots. Often plants store their energy as starch (think of a potato), but sugar beets are bred to store particularly high amounts of sucrose. The typical sugar beet consists of 18 percent sugar by weight, and yields about three teaspoons of the sweet stuff. Another source of sugar is sugar cane, a tropical grass with a sugary stalk. Sugar cane provides three-quarters of the world sugar supply, but the United States limits the amount of sugar cane that can be imported due to high domestic production of sugar beets.... What the difference is between a yam and a sweet potato?In most American markets, the orange-fleshed root vegetables labeled "yams" are actually just a more colorful variety of the whitish-fleshed sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). True yams (Dioscorea sp.) are white, bland, starchy tubers that are used widely in tropical countries, but are rarely marketed in the United States. Unlike true yams, sweet potato "yams" are packed with beta-carotene, the orange pigment, which reduces risk of heart disease and cancer. Winter is sweet potato season; so enjoy your candied yams and sweet potato pie knowing that they are loaded with powerful antioxidants, and that they come from the same vegetable.Whitson Herforth is a graduate student at the Friedman School. She has a BS in Plant Science from Cornell University.

The Setonian
News

In Our Midst | One student is acting globally and locally

February 22

A native of Indonesia her whole life, an Indian citizen on paper, and a resident of Medford, Mass. for the school year, Tufts senior Avantika Tenja is bent on saving the world both locally and globally. Of course, Tenja's double major in anthropology and child development is a big help and a bigger inspiration. "I feel like it's a very save-the-world type of discipline," Taneja said. "They're more people-oriented majors." Most recently, Taneja's knowledge of youth development and anthropology helped her aid tsunami relief efforts. One of her newest endeavors aims to build "trauma recovery into the curriculum for community-based preschools in the affected province" of Aceh. A native of Indonesia, Taneja was back home in Jakarta when the quake that caused the disaster occurred. "Geographically, we were far enough that we weren't affected at all directly...but emotionally, it was still pretty proximal," Taneja said. Living in the island nation's capital, Taneja was able to directly observe relief effort coordination. Upon returning to Tufts, she found the campus different than when she had left: "I've felt more like an ambassador to Indonesia than I've ever felt at Tufts before," she said. Taneja is "wary" of representing Indonesia, though, due to her status in the country as a foreigner. "I went to an international school and was part of an international community," Taneja said. "Our school was very Westernized." The jump to Tufts after a Westernized education was not very difficult, Taneja said. Her decision to attend Tufts was based largely on an intuitive feeling. "I mean, Jumbo's the mascot, come on!" she said, laughing about Tufts' own Indian heritage. Now a senior, Taneja has worked extensively in the community at and around Tufts. "I'm so married to this school!" she joked. During her junior year, Taneja coordinated a program within the Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS), Girls Interaction Raising Levels of Self Esteem (GIRLS). She describes it as a "big-sisters" program involving after-school sessions with middle school girls. Although she loved the program, Taneja stopped being involved in GIRLS this year in order to focus on something else: "I wanted to concentrate on some of the internal organizational aspects of LCS," she said. "I'm really interested in building program assessment." Working in LCS is not the only thing Taneja has done throughout her Tufts career. Last semester marked the recognition of the Anthropology Collective, which Taneja founded and now coordinates. Taneja and a friend thought that it would be nice to know all the other anthropology majors, "and it kind of snowballed from there," she said. The organization now has multiple objectives, including recruiting speakers and becoming more involved with the faculty. "We participated in the search process for a new anthropology professor," Taneja said. The collective also helps with forums for student research. Taneja herself has been involved in research in both anthropology and child development. During an anthropology course entitled "Urban Borderlands," Taneja researched youth programs and how they address the needs of Latino youths in Somerville. She also conducts research at the Institute for Applied Research and Youth Development, which is sponsored by Tufts' Child Development department. "The idea is that research in Child Development should be applied," Taneja said. "It shouldn't just generate the knowledge, but should be very much embedded in what's going on in communities." Taneja is on the Institute's advisory board as an undergraduate representative. She also had plans to be a TA for a youth development class this semester, though it was cancelled due to low enrollment. Instead, Taneja and her fellow intended TAs have turned to working on a lecture series, recruiting speakers about the topics on which the class would have focused. This spring was not the first time Taneja's plans have fallen through - she also had hoped to go abroad to Sweden during her junior year. "I was all set, and then my program got cancelled," she said. Despite the missed opportunity, Taneja maintains a positive attitude. "I think I had a good momentum here," she said. "It would have been win-win." Although unsure of what her exact post-graduation plans are, Taneja knows she will keep up her high level of social consciousness. Even though she has "no idea what turn [her] life is taking," Taneja is sure she wants to help people. "I'm really keen in the long run about going back home and doing humanitarian work," she said.

The Setonian
News

Balance | Ask Sara Wilson, RD

February 22

Q. My friend says that drinking juice or Snapple tea is better than drinking soda because of all the sugar in soda. She won't drink diet soda either because of the artificial sweeteners in it. She drinks three or four bottles of juice a day, and she says she gets a lot of nutrition from them. Is juice really better for you than soda? A. It depends. If the juice label says "100 percent fruit juice" then you can be pretty sure you're getting some of the vitamins and minerals that that particular fruit offers. However, most juice drinks - or Snapple flavored teas - are made with only 10 or 20 percent juice. The remainder is made up of artificial flavorings and either sugar or other sweeteners. Therefore, there could be just as much sugar, and calories, in your friend's juice drink or Snapple tea as is in a can of Coke. On the other hand, diet juice drinks and diet sodas are made with non-nutritive sweeteners; this means that they have non-caloric sweeteners added for flavor, such as aspartame or saccharin. These drinks are virtually sugar-free and calorie-free, and there is no real evidence that artificial sweeteners are harmful. I would advise your friend to cut back on the juice, try a diet juice or soda drink on occasion, or better yet, stick to flavored water (often calorie-free also). She'll be saving calories that might be better spent on an afternoon snack, or an after-dinner treat.Q. We learned about multivitamins in my nutrition class and I think I should start taking one. I looked at multivitamins at the store, and found one called One-A-Day Weight Smart. It says it can increase your metabolism and I feel like it would be helpful since I don't get to work out as often as I should. Do these really work? Are they safe? A. One-A-Day Weight Smart multivitamins claim to "enhance your metabolism" with EGCG, and to "convert food to fuel" with extra B vitamins. This might sound better on the bottle than it does in reality. EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), a potent extract of green tea, acts as an antioxidant. According to some preliminary studies, EGCG may be beneficial for the heart, and may act as an anti-inflammatory agent. Some researchers even think it may increase metabolic rate. However, because EGCG is an herbal substance, it is not regulated by the Food and Drug Association (FDA), and any claims made about its potential benefits have not been evaluated by the FDA. It may not be harmful per se, but we do not know if it is safe - and in what amounts - either. Caution should be taken whenever consuming any herbal product, and certainly, you should check with your doctor before taking this multivitamin, especially if you are on any other medication to avoid harmful drug interactions. In terms of "convert[ing] food to fuel," B vitamins do help to convert food to energy through a complex series of chemical processes. But taking extra B vitamins will not necessarily make you lose weight; that is, extra B vitamins will not help to convert any extra calories you eat to extra energy, or increase your metabolic rate. The bottom line is, eating more food than your body can use means excess calories are stored as fat. Q. I'm planning on letting loose in sunny South Beach, Fl. this year for spring break. I'm worried about gaining weight from eating out so often. What can I do to keep my diet on track without spoiling all the fun? A. Eating out while on vacation requires only a little planning ahead, and armed with some practical tips, you can enjoy the food and still have fun. For starters, avoid skipping meals as much as possible; it will only make you hungrier later on. At a restaurant, drink water while looking at the menu. This will help you to avoid overeating just because you are thirsty. Have a small dinner salad before the main course (dressing on the side, minus the cheese and bacon) to curb overeating at your meal. Or split an entr?©e with a friend. Choose lean meat (like chicken) or fish/seafood that is grilled, broiled, or baked (without any breading or creamy sauce), and lower fat sides such as steamed vegetables, a baked potato, rice or fruit. Ask for a container to take leftovers with you - but only if you can keep them safely. If your hotel room has a refrigerator, you can keep leftovers for a quick lunch along with some items from the store. Above all, remember that eating out, especially on vacation, should be fun. If you have a rich appetizer, choose a lower-fat entr?©e; if you indulge at lunch, eat a lighter dinner; if you have dessert, remember that sunny Florida grows many delicious fruits - choose something exotic!

The Setonian
News

Balance | Triathlete gets a leg up on life

February 22

Papers are piling up and exams are under way. The fresh start that marks the beginning of the semester has lost its luster and has now almost completely faded away. The drive to stay in shape for spring break has vanished, only to be replaced with the comfort of a few more minutes of shut-eye between the sheets. Students everywhere are in need of some inspiration to keep studying, keep sweating and keep working to overcome the challenges in their lives. Sarah Reinertsen - world record holder, triathlete and amputee - is that inspiration. Serenity. A feeling of complete calmness so easily lost in this hectic world, sometimes to appear at the strangest moments. For Sarah Reinertsen, serenity came seconds before the biggest event of her life - Ironman. "I remember floating on my back in the topaz blue waters, looking up at the cloudless sky and feeling incredibly calm. Then, BOOM! The cannon went off." This is not just any 29-year-old buff, blonde athlete competing in what many consider the world's hardest Ironman competition; Reinertsen is the first amputee woman to ever compete in an Ironman event. "This isn't any Ironman," Reinertsen said. "This is the World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. It's the best of the best." This 'ultra triathlon' is held in multiple cities around the world and is made up of a 2.1-mile ocean swim, a 112-mile bike race and a 26.2-mile run that must be completed within 17 hours.In the Beginning Born with a condition called proximal femoral focal deficiency, Reinertsen's left leg was in a brace from the age of 11 months, and finally amputated at the age of seven. To keep up with her growth spurts, she has subsequently gone through 20 different prosthetic legs. Although the prostheses helped her walk, it did not help her popularity in gym class. "I was always picked last in gym class and was never included in 'regular' play with the other kids," Reinertsen said. "I was ostracized, left to kick a ball against the wall, alone." She initially accepted her fate believing nothing would ever change. Then, at age 11, her mother brought her to a 'special' track meet attended by kids with similar disabilities. "I remember seeing all these kids with missing legs and thinking, 'finally a fair race.'" When the gun went off, Reinertsen jumped out of the starting gate, ran through the finish line first, and never stopped to look back. She went on to compete in many track events and currently holds the AKA (above the knee amputee) world record in the 100 meter, 200 meter, 400 meter, half-marathon and marathon races. This is not an easy accomplishment for someone who expends 40 percent more oxygen and twice the amount of energy than a person with two legs does. Despite this, she mastered her sport and wanted a new challenge - triathlons. "I ran marathons for years, building up my endurance," Reinertsen said. "However, after a while they lost their challenge and triathlons were a natural progression for me." For this to materialize, Reinertsen needed to work on her swimming technique. Worse still, she had to learn how to ride a bicycle, one of the most humbling experiences of her young life. "My legs don't weigh the same, which makes it difficult to balance, Reinertsen said. "Two years ago, I started practicing on a stationary bike in my tiny Brooklyn apartment. When I moved out to California, I hit the road but it was not a smooth transition. I definitely took some nasty spills."A Tri-Athlete Is Born Fast forward to 2004; Reinertsen is running through the airport trying to meet her connecting flight to New York. She is being honored at a ceremony for appearing on the cover of the November issue of Runner's World magazine. She returned from Kona - the Hawaii island best known for its vast volcanoes and lava fields - one week prior with the taste of its ashen air still lingering in her mouth. "Hawaii was amazing, she said. "The cheering onlookers were very supportive, especially when I needed them most, during the hardest bike ride of my life." Despite the 40 mile-per-hour head winds, Sarah did not fall during the Ironman competition; however, there was another unexpected turn of events. "I was eight hours into the bike ride and I was only traveling five miles per hour up the hill that led to the turn around. The crosswinds were so insane that I was pushed four feet across the road. After the turn around, I ate a Cliff Bar and two minutes later - Blaugh! It came right back up." A little vomit couldn't stop this superstar athlete on the biggest race day of her life. Reinertsen took the incident in stride. "A friend of mine was riding the course in a car, taking pictures of the athletes. She rode up beside me and was screaming that if I didn't pedal faster I wasn't going to make the time cut-off. I told her I needed to figure out how I could puke and maintain my pace at the same time. I can still see the look of confusion on her face." After a life-long dream and 18 grueling months of discipline, self-control and training, this was not Reinertsen's year to complete the Ironman. She finished the swim and bike portion, but failed to do it in the allotted time; therefore she was ineligible to continue. Reinertsen is upbeat about her chances for next year. "I'm already in great shape, who knows how strong I'll be in a year," she said. "When I finished the bike portion of the race, I went to watch the other competitors cross the finish line. The looks on their faces were a mix of exhaustion and exuberance. I know now that I will use those images to motivate me to persevere. But after ten minutes I couldn't watch it anymore, I needed to go." And off she went.

The Setonian
News

Attorney speaks out on global women's issues

February 22

Students gathered in the Barnum auditorium last night for a speech given by Layli Miller-Muro, an immigration-laws attorney and head of the Washington, DC-area based Tahiri Justice Center. The speech, coordinated and sponsored by the University's Women's Center and the International Center, focused around the current state of women's rights throughout the world and the challenges facing women, such as mail-order brides and genital mutilation. Miller-Muro also discussed what she saw as America's apathy and complacency while these injustices occurred around the world and even in the U.S. "Humanity goes through different stages as it evolves, and right now I think we are in an adolescent kind of phase," Miller-Muro said. "In order to evolve into adulthood, we must first achieve perfect equality between men and women." Layli spoke primarily from her personal experiences through her travels around the world. She spent time in Gambia, where she learned through local women the custom of genital mutilation. The custom had become so ingrained into the population that the women talked excitedly weeks before to prepare for the day of mutilation. "Saying that the world should not take action about something like this because it is part of culture is ridiculous," she said. "Slavery was once a major part of American society, and France and Britain at different times were telling us it was very, very wrong." The topic of conversation switched to mail-order brides coming into the U.S. from around the world. Many of them, Miller-Muro said, have gone through elaborate courtship arrangements with men in the U.S. "When these women arrived in America, they found that these men turned out to be serial rapists or sexual predators. To make matters even worse, these women have nowhere to turn to since they aren't even legal citizens," she said. Another problem entirely, Miller-Muro said, is that mail-order brides could gain temporary citizenship in only three months, while refugees from countries performing acts like genital mutilation could not enter the country for years, if at all. Layli concluded the presentation with an optimistic outlook on the future of women's rights throughout the world, although movement is admittedly slow and sporadic. Casualties to women from acid injuries in Pakistan - where a part of culture includes pouring acid on a woman who rejects the man's marriage proposal - have risen in recent years. But, this rise is due to the fact that more women are seeking indepence of thought and rejecting the forced relationships that have long been customary to their culture, Miller-Muro said. "In order to achieve equality between men and women, two processes must occur. First, we must create laws that protect and support this equality. Secondly, and most importantly, we must transform hearts, attitudes and behaviors. We can have all the laws in the world but without attitude transformation it is worthless," she said. Miller-Muro currently works as an attorney for a private firm in the greater Washington, DC area. She previously worked for the U.S. Department of Justice and focused on immigration law. While in law school at American University in 1996, Layli met an young female immigrant from Togo who sought refugee status in the U.S. to escape the genital mutilation occurring in her native country. She worked to defend that girl, and her work became a groundbreaking precedent-setting case in the realm of immigration law in this country. "I think [Miller-Muro's] comments about America's role in these problems were very controversial but very true," senior Deirdre Brodie said after the speech. "The majority of Americans don't travel enough and don't see how the rest of the world is. We have such a huge potential to change the world we should start taking advantage of that potential."

The Setonian
News

Tufts' top 10 must-see works of art

February 22

1) "Portrait of Kimiko Powers," Andy Warhol This bright fuchsia and purple portrait of Kimiko Powers, wife of the deceased business man and art collector John Powers, is an acrylic painting on a silk-screened canvas. It hangs behind the front desk at the gallery entrance. 2) "Time Signatures," Barbara Zucker (exhibited Feb. 10 - Mar. 27) Located in the Koppelman gallery, Zucker's exhibit of floor and wall-mounted sculptures is inspired by the wrinkles in older women's faces. The exhibit features a piece made specifically for the Tufts Gallery, "Lilian's Face Flowing," which overlooks the Remis sculpture court. 3) "Girl Culture," Lauren Greenfield (exhibited Feb.10-Mar. 27) "Girl Culture" is a series of photographs and interviews examining the daily lives of contemporary American girls. The exhibit features a diverse group of subjects, ranging from summer campers to Las Vegas showgirls. 4) "Vanishing," Antonin Kratochvil (exhibited Feb. 1-28) A project created over the course of 16 years, this collection of photo essays explores the destructive effects of human catastrophes that have occurred all over the world, including Guyana, Bohemia, Bolivia, Chernobyl, Iraq and New York City. In "Vanishing," Kratochvil uncovers the devastation that is widely accepted and justified under the cover of "progress." 5) "Get Your Gun Up" and "Teenage Daydream: In Vain," Alex McQuilken (exhibited Jan.1 through Mar. 31)McQuilken's videos screen repeatedly on the New Media Wall. Get Up Your Gun features a Spaghetti-Western-film-inspired showdown where two girls battle not with guns, but rather with their sexuality. Teenage Daydream captures a teenage girl's imagined stardom in the form of a music video. 6) Point Of View Series: "WGG (Wild Gone Girls)," Paul McCarthy. (playing Jan. 1-Mar. 31) In this grotesque digital video, artist Paul McCarthy utilizes simulated violence to discuss the role of bloodshed and mutilation in contemporary culture. This video, as with all work in the Point Of View series, is accompanied by an interview with the artist. 7) MFA Thesis Exhibit (exhibited Apr. 5 -24) Thesis candidates from the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) showcase their artwork. Attend the reception on Thurs., Apr. 7, from 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. 8) Art at Lunch Series Every other Wednesday afternoon, the gallery sponsors this program that frequently hosts featured artists. The featured Point of View piece on the New Media Wall from April through May will be Joshua Mosley's mixed-media animation work, "Commute.". The artist will discuss his art at the Lunch Series on Mar. 30. 9) Introduction and Screening of Abigail Child's "Cake and Steak" (Thurs., Mar. 10, 6:00 p.m.) Child is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker and faculty member at the School of the MFA. Her film explores the American nuclear family in the context of the American Dream. 10) Karl Stirner, "Feeling Lucky" (exhibited Apr. 7-Aug. 14)Stirner's "essentialist" sculptures are created from steel plates found in Pennsylvania scrap yards.

The Setonian
News

Author, activist speaks about Social Security reform

February 21

President George W. Bush's current Social Security plan and its benefits for minorities and the impoverished were addressed by author Star Parker in Cabot Auditorium last night. Parker's main objections to the current Social Security retirement and unemployment plans hinge on the restrictions that they place on the participants. The classified poor people receiving Social Security benefits are discouraged from finding better work, saving money or getting married since any of these things could result in a loss of benefits, Parker said. This may result in many low- income people being "crippled by the grips of welfare," she said, and thus "shuts down natural instincts to take care of yourself." Parker questioned the validity of the entire concept of welfare. Such a system has "replaced the moral framework ... [that made] people responsible [and] replaced the natural consequences of bad decisions with a safety net," she said. Parker grew up as a single mother in Los Angeles, living under the current welfare system that she opposes. She has authored two books, "Uncle Sam's Plantation" and "Pimps, Hoes, and Welfare Brats." Parker is currently the head of the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), and makes monthly presentations to congress. In specific relation to the retirement portion of Social Security, Parker criticized it for operating as a "one size fits all" program that ends up taking a person's retirement out of their hands. Parker argued that a non-transferable retirement fund is especially detrimental for blacks, as a large number of blacks die before the retirement age, and a portion of their money is lost to the system before they receive the benefits for which they've paid. According to Parker, in very many cases this will lead to the perpetuation of low-income socio-economic groups, as the members of these groups are often unable to pass on the portion of their inheritance that has gone to social security. Parker contends that Social Security also tends to discourage marriage, which she said she believes makes for more stable households, citing a statistic that less than eight percent of homes based around a married couple live in poverty. By attempting to raise the retirement age to ensure the future viability of the social security fund, Parker said she sees politicians telling the black community, "We want you dead before we have to repay what we owe you." The changes in population ratios are causing some to question the future of the Social Security program as well, she said. Parker said this is the sole reason the issue is currently up for discussion, since Social Security is "running to its death day." Parker rejected the proposed attempts to gradually remedy the problems with the system, such as increases in the Social Security tax, raising the minimum retirement age, or slightly decreasing benefits. She said that politicians often "manipulate different changes so they can keep the current system," essentially avoiding the problem until a future time. She advocated privatizing Social Security, allowing workers to have their own personal investment accounts. This would allow people direct control of their money and more flexibility in leaving it to their children. Parker also expressed her libertarian views on education, which she believes should be made more competitive by instituting a system of public school vouchers to give poor people a choice of schools to attend rather than locking them into poorly funded public schools. When asked about the rise in African-American Republican votes in this past presidential election, Parker credited the issue of gay marriage as bringing many African-Americans to the Republican side. She said she believes this is due to anger in some circles over gay rights activists equating gay rights with civil rights which is, in their minds, equating an unchangeable identity to a lifestyle choice. Parker also commented on the different ways black and white people react to the question of gay marriage. "Whites will reason the thing out," she said, while "blacks come at it from a more emotional perspective," leading them to believe that it is inherently wrong. To solve the debate, Parker said "we will have to amend the constitution," since laws regarding marriage can not differ from state to state since it would create far too many logistical and legal problems.

The Setonian
News

Power politics and oil in our own lives

February 21

You have just returned from a ski trip after several hours on the road. All the while, shots ring out somewhere in Central Asia between government and rebel forces. The Chinese and Russian ambassadors to the U.N. scowl in disapproval at something the American ambassador has been pushing for. A terrorist attack rocks the Moscow metro and threatens the balance of the city. Money passes under the table between government and oil executives, millions of dollars at a time. And now, you are enjoying a movie in your heated dorm. Scenarios like this unfold every single day around the globe. In EPIIC, we have had the fortune to examine the roots of these issues and their linkages. The annual EPIIC symposium, this year titled "Oil and Water," begins on Wednesday and runs until Sunday. The symposium is a public forum for experts to debate issues from varying viewpoints, and for the public to think broadly about these same issues. The symposium demonstrates that power politics and our daily lives are more connected than ever. The competition for resources and the stakes associated have never been higher. American needs for oil and natural gas resources have a profound impact on our relations with other countries. Given dwindling American domestic oil production and our growing appetite, we are increasingly looking for new energy sources worldwide. This translates into competition between other major powers like the E.U., Russia, and China. It also means uneasy relations with producer nations like Venezuela, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and other countries in the Middle East. International politics are primarily about two things: power and economics. Since a state's economy is an essential element of its power, military force is often used to ensure vital resources. First semester we were fortunate to have read both "Blood and Oil" and "Resource Wars" by Michael Klare. These two books give a remarkably clear picture of the past decade's decision-making and power politics, which have ensured us the natural resources necessary to make the American economy the most vibrant in the world. Klare, a speaker at this year's EPIIC symposium, allows us to understand the stakes at play. The fuel we need to run our economies does not simply come to us by chance or by good will. It has to be fought for and protected. For every drop of oil that we use to drive our cars or heat our home, a tremendous amount of time and money is spent making sure we get it. According to Herman Scheer, the President of the World Council on Renewable Energy, there are seven steps to get oil out of the ground and into your car: extraction, fuel transportation, fuel refining, waste disposal, storage of refined products, fuel shipping, and fuel combustion into usable energy. The first three are the most contentious because whoever controls extraction has a say in who can transport and consequently who can refine. When a nation like Saudi Arabia can dictate who receives their massive oil reserves, the competition is fierce. Transportation is tremendously lucrative, which makes geography a key component of the international oil trade. The major oil chokepoints include the Straits of Hormuz (dictating flow from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world), the Straits of Malacca (between Malaysia and Indonesia), the Suez Canal, the Bosporus and Dardanelles (connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean), Straits of Gibraltar, and the Panama Canal. The Straits of Hormuz are the most important since the most important oil producing region is the Persian Gulf. The oil from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and the U.A.E. all flow through this narrow body of water which Iran controls. Given our difficult relations with Iran and the questions surrounding their nuclear program, a constant, weary eye watches the straits. The oil of the Caspian has the potential of being an equally volatile issue. Much of it was untapped during the Cold War, and now bidding revolves around who can get access to the fields and who can transport it. Since Moscow historically controlled the flow of Caspian oil and gas, all of the pipelines run north towards Russia. Any American interests in the region would need oil and gas to flow around Russia and Iran. Steve Coll, a Pulitzer Prize winner and formerly of the Washington Post, details the American pipeline plans through Afghanistan in his book "Ghost Wars." The pipeline would have taken advantage of Turkmenistan's massive natural gas without going through Russia or Iran, two major rivals in the region. This all brings us to our own daily lives. Certainly there are many other examples of oil geopolitics like Venezuela and Nigeria, but they all contribute to our own quality of living here at home. We have a freedom of mobility enjoyed by few societies on earth. Gasoline is relatively cheap and abundant. Nearly all of our homes are heated or have air conditioning. Our factories, the heart of the industrial part of our economy, depend mostly on imported fuel. All of the plastics we use are petroleum products. Our lives are tied to the successful acquisition and distribution of oil and natural gas. This dependence grows as our standard of living and population continue to surge. Some speakers this weekend, like Mike Eckhart, President of the American Council on Renewable Energy, will argue for a greener agenda, whereas Gerry Gabriel of ExxonMobil will argue that fossil fuels can continue to be used for a long time. What makes us excited is that these two will have the chance to present to the public on the same panel on Sunday. We encourage everyone to come to the EPIIC symposium and understand more about these issues of grave importance. Gaining insight on the necessity of oil in our lives, the world economy, international relations, and international security is something we can all stand to gain from. Alex Duncan is a senior and IR and Russian and Eastern European Studies Major. He is also a member of the 2005 EPIIC Colloquium: Oil and Water.

The Setonian
News

Shapiro speaks on views and methods of the media

February 21

Tufts alumnus and NBC News President Neal Shapiro (LA '80) returned to campus Friday morning to discuss the current phenomenon of public distrust of the press and what can rebuild the lost confidence. "[In the] latest Gallup Poll I saw, nurses have an 80 percent trust rating," Shapiro said. "Reporters are at 20 percent. We're still higher than congressmen and car salesmen." According to Shapiro, one of the most common problems with press accuracy is that "context often gets lost." To compensate, he argued for greater press transparency, whereby the media "let[s] the viewers in on excruciating detail" about their reporting. Shapiro also discussed the issue of reporters who completely fabricate their stories. "[All reporters] are competitive and want to succeed," he said. "When it gets competitive 99.9 percent [of reporters] don't make things up. You wouldn't be a journalist if you didn't want to get the news right and get it first." "The scary thing is that the others may slip [their stories] through," he said, referring to Jack Kelly of USA Today and Jayson Blair of the New York Times. Such an uncertainty of reporter accuracy results in higher stress for editors. "It's hard enough being an editor," Shapiro said. "Then you have to worry, is someone lying to me?" Shapiro also attributed public distrust of the media to the current trend of blogging, or online discussion of current events. With blogging, "the public often confuses facts with advocacy," he said. In contrast to these bloggers, Shapiro said, the mainstream press aims to remove as much bias as possible. "Our jobs are to say, 'Here are the facts and you make the judgment,'" he said. To account for lack of trust in the media, Shapiro offered a few basic tenets which he believed all reporters should follow. He emphasized the importance of reporters ensuring their sources' accuracies. "Look at every source you get and ask, 'Why do I believe it?'" he said. "Be transparent, tell who the experts are and why you picked them." Shapiro argued for transparency even when an error occurs during reporting. "We're going to make mistakes, but how we handle it is important," he said. "If you make a mistake, admit it and admit it promptly. Otherwise it adds to the image of not listening to criticism." In addition, a reporter should not determine the course of a story, Shapiro said. "Follow the story wherever it takes you," he said. "You have to follow it, willing to know that it could go nowhere." Shapiro spoke about his own efforts to remove himself from his own reporting and look at it through the eyes of a viewer in order to preempt any issues that might emerge. "[At Dateline,] we wrote the angry letter that we were going to get," he said. Such a method, he said, has worked. "I think the best stories we've done is to pull along the minds of the viewers," he said. All precautions taken to optimize accuracy, however, should not alter the value or controversy of a story. "Above all we better be right, but we can't lose why people are turning to us," he said. "The thing is to be brave and be distinguishable." Shapiro applied his reporting requirements to a story on Paula Jones taken during his time working at Dateline. "The story had trouble written all over it," he said. "But at the end of the day, a lot of you probably don't remember this story," he said. According to Shapiro, a Dateline reporting mistake would have been more memorable. Following his lecture, students and faculty asked many questions on the press' role in the modern, technological world. Shapiro gave his thoughts on Fox News, media polarity, and entertainment as news. "The media is splintering a little bit," he said, referring to the new trend of networks tailoring themselves towards certain audiences, as Fox News has done. "We're not like in England, where there's a Labour paper and you know what you're reading. Here, we are broadcasters." In his assessment of the Fox News phenomenon, Shapiro compared politics and sports. "Fox did very well at the Republican Convention, it's like watching it on the home team channel," he said. "But they would totally disagree with me." Shapiro alluded to CNN's Crossfire in his criticism of the huge media polarity. "It gets to be boring after a while," he said. "I want to hear from passionate people, but I want them to be smart and not be putting on an act. We divide the country into red and blue, but there are a whole lot of other ways to separate it." In order to compete with popular figures in entertainment for front page headlines, Shapiro said reporters must pay particular attention to their stories' angles. "OJ captured the media because it was a huge racial issue," he said. "If [the media] is smart, [it] will find all the interesting angles."

The Setonian
News

Alex Bloom | Philly Phodder

February 21

NBA All-Star Weekend in Denver lived up to the hype this year, if only because of the slam dunk contest between Josh Smith and Amare Stoudemire. Smith jumped over K-Mart in a chair and Stoudemire took a header off of Steve Nash for a reverse slam. The game had its highlights too, with Vinsanity making its return as the Net hit a self alley-oop. Even the opening tip was entertaining, with Shaq and Kobe refusing to shake hands. But thinking about Kobe and the All-Star game reminded me of a conversation I had with some of my friends a few months ago. We put together a list of players that we just can't stand. Here's your NBA We-Hate-You All-Star Team. We didn't restrict our hate to normal NBA bad guys like Ron Artest (although he made the team). We also didn't restrict players based on whether they are still contributing members of teams or even whether they are still in the league. We ended up with a list of 41 players, a coach, a commentator, two whole teams and a college team. I narrowed it down to 14 players, a coach and a commentator. Pre-game introductions time. Here's the starting five. Get the smoke machine out. In the frontcourt, former Boston Celtic and Dallas Maverick and current Atlanta Hawk starting forward and leading scorer, it's Antoine Walker (a cacophony of boos and trash greets the NBA's worst team player). I'm not worried about how many Boston fans I'm angering right now because this guy cares more about his taunts than anything else. He's sixth in the league right now with 3.4 turnovers a game and has previously led the league in three-point attempts and has averaged as many as 3.7 turnovers a game (2000-01). Joining him up front is shooting specialist and Indiana Pacer Reggie Miller. Maybe it was the guy's taunts and attempts at dethroning Air Jordan, or maybe it was the sight of him sweeping the Sixers out of the playoffs in 1999 and then beating them again in 2000. But this guy always gets it done (eight points in 16.4 seconds against the Knicks in 1995) and still pisses off everyone in the process. At center (we're not so concerned about positions here at the We-Hate-You All-Star team) is glory hog and former Chicago Bull, Houston Rocket and Portland Trailblazer Scottie Pippen. Raise your hand if you think this guy is one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players between 1946 and 1996. Nobody? That's what I thought. And in the backcourt, we have the Lakers duo of Rick Fox and Kobe Bryant. One ended up with Vanessa Williams, despite having more hair products than her and caring more about acting than she does. The other managed to drive away two of the biggest names in the sport ever (the Zenmaster and the Shaq Daddy), while inviting charges of rape and still criticizing Karl Malone for making passes at his wife. They also both ruined the Sixers' chance at an NBA title in 2001. Coming off the bench, there's (in no particular order) Keith Van Horn, Tyronn Lue, Ron Artest, Tayshaun Prince, Austin Croshere, Mehmet Okur, Carmelo Anthony, Marcus Camby and Ricky Davis. For Van Horn, he was a Sixer twice, and both times, he just wasted our time. In each one of his eight seasons in the NBA, he's been nothing but disappointing. Why do you think this guy's greatest career moments came as a Stormin' Mormon under Rick Majerus (two buzzer beaters in the 1996 WAC tourney)? Tyronn Lue, Tayshaun Prince, Austin Croshere and Mehmet Okur all fall under the title of Sixer beaters. I'll concede that fact. But Lue is also just a punk (who did he think he was, trying to push A.I. around in Game 1 of the finals in 2001?), Okur and Prince are simply pesky and Austin Croshere hasn't done anything since the turn of the century and still brings home an NBA check. Ron Artest, Marcus Camby and Carmelo Anthony are NBA bad boys and prima donnas. Artest should be banned from the league for his stupid acts of petty violence and fighting. If Camby (sorry Minutemen fans) would stop fighting and getting injured, he might be a productive center. But prior to last season (when he played 72 games), he had never played more than 63 games in a season. And 'Melo should have stayed at Syracuse instead of being the sophomoric joke he's become this year. Ricky Davis will always be one of my most hated players because of one incident: the self-rebound. On March 16, 2003, Davis tried to give himself a triple double by intentionally missing a shot off his own basket. He can win the MVP for the next twelve seasons, but I'll always despise him for that play. Directing the action from the bench is George Karl. I was simply dumbfounded in 2001 when he made claims that the referees and the league wanted the Sixers to go to the finals. This guy is just a crybaby. Heck, I'd cry too if I lost three straight to Deke and the Nuggets in the 1993-94 playoffs despite being the top seed in the West. And this team's commentator would be Bill Walton. He's egotistical, one-sided, and just plain stupid. He's perfect for this team. And he'd have to commentate alone because he's too overbearing to have a partner. There you have it. That's my team. If you have any suggestions, leave a comment online. This is the provisional team, and I'm not ruling out changes.

The Setonian
News

Arts Briefs

February 21

Warren Weberg explores ambiguity in musicWarren Weberg is the 'little black dress' of classical composers; his style has been around forever, but it looks - or rather, sounds - refreshingly original every time you encounter it. Described by the composer as an "exploration into ambiguity and indeterminacy," Weberg will begin the Tufts Composers Concert Series tomorrow night with five innovative pieces, one of which will be repeated throughout the performance but interpreted with a different musical spin each time. Of this unorthodox style, Weberg modestly says, "It seems revolutionary, but it's actually been around since Mozart." Weberg's musical background is almost as diverse as his performance pieces. After obtaining his undergraduate degree from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Weberg then immersed himself in a 15-year career as a recording engineer, dabbling in a wide range of musical genres before finally deciding to search for his own unique sound at Tufts under the guidance of music chair John McDonald. "This," Weberg says of his graduate studies and upcoming concert, "is more direct work expressing my own thoughts as opposed to helping other people express theirs." When asked what he hopes for the Tufts Composers series, Weberg simply replies, "I hope we get a good turnout. It's important to have support from the community for music like this, and I think we'll be able to find that here at Tufts." Weberg's concert is the first in a series of four such performances scheduled over the next three weeks, featuring Nathan Curtis on February 24th, Marco Visconti-Prasca on March 2nd, and Felipe Lara on March 9th. Weberg's concert will be held tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. in Alumnae Hall, and admission to the concert is free.SOAR-ing above the painThe slow, painful process of recovering from sexual trauma is never easy, but it is even less so when every agonizing moment is caught on film. Nevertheless, for one woman, documenting her experience through photography was a welcome therapy to help her cope with her experience as a rape victim, and this Thursday, she will bring that experience to the Tufts campus. In 1997, Salamishah Tillet admitted to her younger sister Scheherazade that she had been the victim of a brutal rape. Scheherazade, then a sophomore at Rutgers University in New Jersey, enrolled in a social documentary photography class and learned there that she could use her passion for art to document her sister's struggle and allow Salamishah to keep a record of her personal growth during her recovery. The sisters found their project to be so helpful to Salamishah's healing process that they wondered if they might use the same method to help other victims of sexual violence. In 2000, they turned their 90-piece photo collection into a slideshow presentation entitled, "A Long Walk Home: A Story of a Rape Survivor (SOARS)," and began touring the country to promote social awareness and public dialogue on the subject of violence against women. Since then the SOARS performance has blossomed into a multimedia presentation that incorporates song, poetry, and dance into the photographic display. This Thursday, the Tufts Africana Center, Black Women's Collective, and other campus groups established for the prevention of violence and the celebration of civil rights will host a special performance of SOARS in Barnum 008 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Thursday. Admission to the program and follow-up discussion is free. --compiled by Kelly Rizzetta

The Setonian
News

Continuity and change persist in journalism

February 21

Media credibility was a flash-point for discussion among established journalists at The Tufts Daily's reunion media panels Saturday. "The currency in which we trade is the public trust," said alumnus Anthony Everett (LA '80), anchor at WCVB in Boston. Many panelists discussed the importance of media "transparency" in the wake of "Rathergate" - CBS anchor Dan Rather's "60 Minutes" story that utilized fabricated documents to allege that President George W. Bush had skipped out of his Texas Air National Guard service. The Rathergate affair was such a shock "because of CBS news', and particularly 60 Minutes' gold standard of national journalism," Boston Media critic and Experimental College professor Mark Jurkowitz said. Rathergate and other journalism scandals, such as the Jayson Blair's ethical breaches at the New York Times, have been additional blows to an eroding public confidence in the media. According to Jurkowitz, public faith in the media has been on its way downhill since the early 1970s, when the success of the Watergate story made this era a muckraking heyday. The "only positive time" for the media in recent memory, Jurkowitz said, was "two to three months after Sept. 11, where the media was seen as a very positive force rallying the country." Jurkowitz said that the pressures of a fast-paced and "increasingly fragmented" media tend to scour the unspoken universal ethical standard. In a media world with internet, cable and blogging, "We can never put Humpty Dumpty back together again," he said. Instead, according to Jurkowitz, a recommitment to honesty is crucial. Everett also suggested that many misunderstand the media's role. "We have to let the public understand that we're their servants," he said. Along with freelance journalist alumnus Phil Primack (LA '70), Everett addressed the increasing elitism of today's top journalists and its failure to connect with the average American. "They don't identify with us, and that's a problem," Everett said. Primack said that journalism was formerly a blue-collar profession before today's climate in which largely Ivy League graduates compete for prestigious positions at the nation's top newspapers. Established trust and the competitive pressures of the newsroom can also prevent staffers from speaking up about potential ethical breaches, Jurkowitz said. Providence Journal reporter Daniel Barbarisi (LA '01) said that reconnection with sources among the public was vital. "We need closer-to-the-ground reporting," where subjects are viewed through the prism of respect and not condescension, he said. "The more trust you can build among the people [while reporting], the better," he said. While public trust is important, NBC President Neal Shapiro (LA '80) questioned to what extent public preference should really mandate what is covered. Ratings, commercialism and "consumerism are really a driving force in journalism," he said. Everett, as a news anchor, agreed with Shapiro's assessment. "There is really a lack of differentiation between news and entertainment," Everett said. "We have our news programming, but we are really running a lot on J. Lo." Despite some breaches of confidence, Shapiro said, many really are striving for integrity. "My passion is to get it right, my passion is to serve the public as best we can," he said. Everett agreed that in spite of its imperfection, the free press is a vital part of the political process - and like democracy, "is supposed to be messy." According to panelists in presentation about the media's role on campus, the early history of campus publications was just as messy as the journalism of today. University Professor and former Provost Sol Gittleman recalled a monthly press conference where then-University president Jean Mayer would answer questions from all campus publications, "and then go home, light a candle and pray." "Our lives were in their hands when they were writing these stories," Gittleman said. "People took the Daily seriously whether they liked it or not." Panelists discussed where campus publications should fall on the continuum between advocacy and criticism of student groups and the administration. "The tendency is to be too sensitive," current Editor-in-Chief Mark Evitt said. "We are first and foremost a newspaper." Primack agreed. "I chafe at the notion of a newspaper advocating," he said. "Like any newspaper, [for the Daily] I advocate the full and free notion of information, and full and complete disclosure." At the same time, he said, many are blind to their own biases. "One person's advocacy is another person's news, it's inherently subjective." Another question presented at the panel discussion entailed the issue of limits on a campus newspaper and when the journalistic process becomes "meddling" in the administration's policy and internal workings. As in the present, campus publications have often been caught up in the middle of pertinent national issues. In the fall of 1991, a chapter of the Jewish Defense League wanted to put a Holocaust denial ad in the paper, plunging the paper and the campus into controversy, New York Times reporter Patrick Healy (LA '83) said. Healy compared the event to the current controversy sparked by Harvard President Lawrence Summers' remarks on women in science, which placed the Harvard Crimson at the vortex of national debate. Healy asserted that such complex issues profoundly test a newspaper's capacity to remain "[controversial] and disinterested." Aside from national issues, coverage of a university presents unique challenges and amusements, Gittleman said. "There is no place in the world like the American university," Gittleman said. "It's a sandbox, it's a nut farm. The faculty are ungovernable."

The Setonian
News

Hockey | Tufts finishes season above .500

February 21

After entering February with a losing record, the Tufts hockey team rattled off four wins in six games to conclude a 12-11-1 regular season. On the heels of a 5-3 loss Friday night to Trinity, the team defeated Wesleyan 5-3 on Saturday to complete the season. Next Saturday, the Jumbos will return to the scene of their defeat last Friday. Tufts locked up the eighth seed in the tournament this weekend and will face the top-seeded Bantams. Last Saturday, although out-shooting Wesleyan 13-7 in the first, the Jumbos found themselves down 1-0 after surrendering a goal with just one second remaining on the clock. Tufts would recover from that late blow in the second, however, to the tune of two goals from junior goal-scoring leader Matt McCarthy (his 17th of the year) and freshman forward Ross Gimbel (his sixth). Another late goal in that period would tie it for the Cardinals, but Tufts poured it on in the third, as both McCarthy and Gimbel collected their second goals of the game after sophomore Brian Bailey had added a score of his own. Gimbel and Bailey finished the game with three points, and freshman Greg O'Connell also had two assists of his own. McCarthy's second goal was his 18th of the season. He finishes the regular season at third place in the NESCAC in goals scored, even though he missed four games in January. Despite the win, the players were not satisfied with the effort. "We didn't come out ready to play right off the bat," coach Brian Murphy said. "I think we played much better the night before. We just happened to lose that one." The previous night's contest, in Hartford against the first-place Bantams, certainly proved to be a test for the upstart Jumbos. While Murphy knew it would take a great effort from his squad to take down Trinity, he did not rule out the possibility. "We have thought all year that we could beat anyone, and this game was no different," he said. Tufts came out matching Trinity step for step, looking like a team that was not going to back down. In a back-and-forth opening frame, the Bantams would strike the first blow past freshman goalie Issa Azat at 6:45, but the Jumbos absorbed that first blow and translated their response into a power play goal, from senior Jason Boudrow, at 12:48, on assists from O'Connell and sophomore John Murphy. It was Boudrow's sixth of the season and 72nd of his illustrious career. At 2:45 of the second period, Trinity took the 2-1 lead. On the ensuing faceoff, Trinity controlled the puck and the NESCAC's second-leading goal scorer, junior Cameron Finch, netted his second goal in nine seconds. With another goal at 16:41 of the period, Trinity had a 4-1 lead. McCarthy scored on the power play, on assists from O'Connell and junior defenseman Jack Thompson, to give Tufts a bit of momentum heading into the final frame, but the Trinity lead proved to be insurmountable, despite another standout effort from a Jumbos' freshman goaltender, Azat in this case. He had 37 saves in the game, including 15 amid a flurry of shots in a tightly contested third period. On Saturday, the Jumbos will get a second crack at the Bantams. This is the third straight season that Tufts will be the eighth and final seed in the tournament. The past two seasons the team has been knocked out in the first round by Middlebury. Murphy and his players have different plans this time around. "We believe we're a good enough team to move on to the final four of the league," he said of a feat that has not been done before by the Jumbos. "I think we're ready."

The Setonian
News

Obituary | Author of 'Fear and Loathing' takes his own life Sunday

February 21

The liquor stores will be facing a run of Wild Turkey bourbon this week as Hunter S. Thompson fans around the country enjoy a drink in honor of the renowned writer and drug abuser's death this week. Thompson, the creator of gonzo journalism, which incorporates rambling first-person diatribes into typically dry narratives, passed away on Sunday from a self-inflicted gunshot at the age of 65. Best known for his 1971 work, the raucously funny and psychedelic "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," Thompson pushed for journalism to lose its nature of objectivity and instead revel in a subjective narrator who doesn't just report, but becomes a character in the story. The news of his death was a kick to the gut to those who have followed Thompson's life over the years. The author's prose leapt off the page; once you picked up one of his books, it was nearly impossible to set it down until the last page had been devoured. But now the man is dead, gone the same exact way as Ernest Hemmingway before him. The similarities between the two men are telling. Both invented their own personae, creating a character for the public which they maintained. And both ended their lives with a gun to their head. Perhaps beneath the defiant exterior lay a deeply sad soul, one whose deep-seated idealism presented a continual moral and ethical crisis. Thompson was always attracted to the concept and failure of the American Dream, the idea that "anything is possible" is merely a myth which was never realized in modern America. In his 20s and living in New York, Thompson fell in love with the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," the ultimate story of the death of the American Dream, rewriting the text three times by typewriter in order to get a sense of the other author's prose. He started as a normal journalist, becoming involved with newspapers while working as the editor of an Air Force base publication. Honorably discharged from the Air Force (in many of his books he would publish his discharge notice), he bounced around a variety of newspaper jobs in sports and news around the East Coast, later working for a sports magazine in Puerto Rico, before eventually becoming a stringer for the National Observer in South America. He became a writer for The Nation while living in California in the 1960s with his new wife, mainly writing book reviews while continuing his attempt to write the "great American novel." The first book he had published was "Hell's Angels," an in-depth look at the infamous biker gang in California, originally commissioned by Rolling Stone magazine. His political writings shaped a generation of politics, creating Rolling Stone's National Affairs desk. Later, Thompson followed George McGovern's campaign against Richard Nixon for the magazine, later turning the pieces into a book, "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail." For a man who was attracted to the idea of mythmaking, he himself was an expert at it. He surrounded himself with layers of hyperbole and overkill, and he quickly garnered an image of a man who lives life with no regard for anyone or anything, a living example of drug abuse and irresponsibility. His letters, which he published in three volumes, show a man who is quick to accuse and slander. But to his friends, girlfriends, and mother, Thompson was someone who had a tenderness and insecurity about his ability to become the next great American author. And in that goal, you could say he failed. He only published one true novel in his lifetime, "The Rum Diary;" a critical failure which spent 40 years in his closet, unpublished, only to be placed on bookshelves in the 1990s at the urging of his publisher. Despite never writing a truly critically acclaimed work, the man was famous in his own right, as much for his character as for his writing. But he never achieved the great potential of which his letters hinted. As Thompson's most famous narrator Raoul Duke said in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," "We'd be fools to not ride this strange torpedo right to the end." Those who fell in love with Thompson's writings about drink, drugs and rebellion would be forced to agree that the author did all he could to stay on that torpedo as long as he could.

The Setonian
News

Women's Basketball | Bates defends no. 1 ranking with season-ending defeat of Jumbos

February 21

This Saturday, the Bates Bobcats grabbed hold of a lead against the women's basketball team and simply refused to let go. Although the Jumbos valiantly fought back in the first half, they ultimately fell too far behind to catch up and lost to the Bobcats in the first round of the NESCAC tournament 61-37. The loss ended the 2004-2005 season and brought the team's final record to 14-10, marking the program's third straight winning season since Carla Berube took over as head coach. Entering Saturday's matchup seeded seventh in the NESCAC tournament, the Jumbos knew they were in for a tough game against Bates, the top-ranked team in the nation for the second straight week. Despite being the second seed in the NESCAC tourney due to a conference loss to Bowdoin, the Bobcats are 23-1 and are ranked No. 1 in the D3hoops.com national poll and No. 2 in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches' Poll. "Going in, we all knew that all the pressure was on them," senior co-captain Allison Love said. "We thought that would work to our advantage. We all gave it definitely 110 percent, but unfortunately we didn't play to our full capabilities. They're a very good team and they're all very well coached, and they played really hard and really well. Unfortunately, it didn't go our way." The game featured an impressive defensive struggle, with neither team shooting exceptionally well. Despite holding Bates to 39 percent, and just 35 percent in the first half, the Jumbos were unable to gain any ground, shooting just 27.5 percent themselves. In addition to its struggles from the field, Tufts offset its defensive efforts by committing 30 turnovers. The Jumbos almost managed an offensive rally against the Bobcats late in the opening period, scoring the last five points before halftime to trail by just seven, 25-18. A three-pointer from sophomore Valerie Krah hit a three-pointer and a jumper by senior co-captain Erin Connolly back-to-back narrowed the gap before the team hit the locker rooms for halftime and put the Jumbos within striking distance as the second half kicked off. However, Bates never relinquished the lead. The Bobcats' offense, first in NESCAC and seventh-ranked nationally, proved insurmountable, with senior Olivia Zurek leading Bates with a game-high 22 points and seven rebounds. Zurek shot 10 of 17 from the field, more than compensating for her teammates' 15-47 shooting performance. Sophomore Meg Coffin shouldered some of the load with 13 points and five rebounds. Bates put the game away early in the second half, when Tufts failed to score during the first six minutes after the intermission, and with 14 minutes to play, Bates led by 22, at 40-18. "Defensive intensity was definitely there [for Tufts]," Love said. "For the most part, we did a good job blocking out and rebounding. Our shots weren't falling, and in the first half it was a seven point game. In the second half, they played better and went on a run and we were never able to catch back up to them." The Jumbos were led by junior Jessica Powers and sophomore Valerie Krah, who each scored 10 points. Junior Julia Verplank had a game-high nine rebounds. "[Bates is] definitely a really disciplined and athletic team," Love said. "They run their plays and they get open shots. They don't even hit that many shots, but they keep working it around until they find their open shots near the basket and they hit those. They work really well together." Bates will continue on in the tournament to play No. 3 Williams next Saturday in the semifinals at Bowdoin, and are undoubtedly looking ahead to the Div. III NCAA tournament, where it will likely garner an extremely high bid. "I definitely think we gave it our all," Love said. "But some days are better than others, and it wasn't our day on Saturday."

The Setonian
News

Tufts loses two alumni focused on international service

February 21

Two Tufts alumni who were prominent figures in the international sphere passed away in the last month. Cristin Gadue (LA '00) passed away in a plane crash outside of Kabul, Afghanistan at the age of 26 on Feb. 3. Gadue was working in Afghanistan as a Reporting and Communications officer for the NGO Rural Expansion of Afghanistan's Community-based Healthcare (REACH), which focuses on strengthening health systems in the country and improving access to health care for women and children. REACH is part of Management Sciences for Health (MSH). Two of her colleagues at MSH, Amy Lynn Niebling and Carmen Urdaneta, also lost their lives. The plane crash is believed to have been weather-related. Cristin Gadue was a native of Burlington, Vermont, where her parents, Michael and Nancy Gadue, still live. "Nancy and I were aware of the risks but were supportive," said Cristin's father, Michael Gadue. "We realized that this was what she wanted to do, and she was happier than she had ever been before." "Her death is a great loss for the community," said Jason Sachs, Gadue's former fencing coach at Tufts. "She was a leader and we are sorry for her family and all who knew her." Cristin Gadue earned a BA in International Development from Tufts in 2000. She was soon hired by MSH as a member of its New Business Development office, which developed proposals that resulted in new MSH initiatives in less fortunate countries such as Afghanistan, Malawi and Senegal. In 2003, she earned the prestigious Paul Alexander Fellowship, granting her the opportunity to gain valuable public health field experience for three months. She chose to work with the REACH Program in Afghanistan. At the conclusion of her fellowship, she was offered a permanent position with REACH, as the Reporting and Communications Officer. She accepted it, and returned to Kabul in April 2004. In this position, she was responsible for disseminating key program information to USAID, and for managing the internal affairs of REACH. "The Tufts atmosphere made her happy to be working with other cultures through MSH," Michael Gadue said. Cristin Gadue's involvement in this type of initiative work did not surprise Sachs, after coaching her for three years in the epee style of fencing. "She was captain of her team for one year and was a strong voice for change," he said. "She always tried to help others and improve things around her." Michael Gadue agreed that his daughter had a strong personality. "I heard that Cristi's fencing coach once referred to her as having little athletic ability, but enough persistence to become the captain. That's who she was," he said. A memorial service was held for Cristin Gadue yesterday morning at the Ira Allen Chapel, located on the University of Vermont campus, the alma-mater of both of her parents. "Cristi had lots of friends on all levels, from MSH workers to Afghanis," Michael Gadue said. A memorial fund has also been established by MSH as a tribute to Gadue and her colleagues. The details of the fund are not yet finalized, but according to the official MSH website, "[The proceeds] will be used to further the work to which Amy, Carmen, and Cristi dedicated their lives." "We ought to recognize and appreciate people who make this sort of sacrifice to help others as much as we recognize and appreciate the jobs that our soldiers do," Michael Gadue said. Peter Whaley (LA '72) served as an American diplomat throughout his professional life, most notably in Haiti and Zaire but more recently in Democratic Republic of the Congo. He died at the age of 54 of pancreatic cancer at his sister's home in Pittsfield, Mass. on Jan. 29. Whaley graduated magna cum laude from Tufts in 1972 as an English major. According to his family members, he accepted the English Department award with pride at his graduation ceremony. Soon after graduation, he began to write political essays, and 10 years later he joined the Foreign Service, beginning a long and illustrious career in foreign relations. "His drive, his intellectual curiosity, his zeal for politics and writing - he credits Tufts for everything," said Susan Offner, Whaley's sister. "He was also fascinated by Jumbo and I think that made him interested in living and working in Africa." In 1990, while Whaley was working in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, officials declared him a "persona non grata" and thus unwelcome in the country. This declaration prompted the United States government to extract him immediately. "Basically, [the persona non grata declaration] meant that if you see that man, shoot him," Offner said. She laughed, "Still, he assured us he was in no real danger." In 1997, Whaley won the William Rivkin Award for "intellectual courage and constructive dissent" after defying a multinational authority attempting to use force to expel almost half a million Rwandan refugees from Zaire. "Peter believed that the people would just get up and leave peacefully. Bringing guns in would only create violence," Offner said. "The higher authorities didn't like that idea at all, but he was right." The 500,000 refugees peacefully returned to Rwanda with no bloodshed. Whaley served as amabassador to Rwanda and returned to Rwanda and Zaire on several occasions. According to the Washington Post, Whaley traveled to the country so often that friends termed his expeditions "Whaley's War." Whaley ended his career in politics by working in the State Department with Colin Powell, focusing on nonproliferation issues, according to the Washington Post. He also worked to improve recognition for retired foreign service officers. "We knew he was sick, but it is still hard to get over his death," Eileen Callahan, Peter's mother, said. A memorial service for Whaley is set for March 10 in Washington, DC.

Trending
The Tufts Daily Crossword with an image of a crossword puzzle
The Print Edition
Tufts Daily front page