It's been four years since PJ Harvey's last album, and yes, if you're wondering, she's still got the voodoo. She'll be bringing her trademark guttural growls and witchy howls to Avalon this Saturday.
Jeff Chen/Tufts DailyStudents participate in a candlelight vigil for the victims of genocide in Sudan on the Goddard Chapel patio last night . It is estimated that a total of more than one million people may die by December.
In the inaugural Snyder Presidential Lecture, chair of the President Bush's Council on Bioethics Leon Kass delivered a cerebral analysis of current biotechnology trends that lived up to University President Larry Bacow's introductory comment that Kass' views "defy convention."
Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy presented his documentary "Crossing the Lines: Kashmir, India, and Pakistan" to a diverse group of about 70 undergraduates, graduates, and faculty Monday evening in the Cabot Auditorium. The film is about the India-Pakistan conflict as it relates to issues of Kashmiri control. History professor Ayesha Jalal described Hoodbhoy as "a household name in Pakistan because he is what you would call a public intellectual." He is currently a visiting professor of physics at MIT. Hoodbhoy specializes in issues of nuclear disarmament, which he considers crucial to the conflict between India and Pakistan. Hoodbhoy first addressed positive movement in relations between the countries, as "we have seen a restoration of diplomatic [relations] this year." He specifically cited the meeting of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf in New York last week. But according to Hoodbhoy, his film showed "a story of people at war over borders and boundaries, driven by nationalistic and religious fervor." The Indian territory of Kashmir, formerly thought of as a prime example of secular rule in India, is now occupied by an Islamic majority. India claims that Kashmir is necessary to keep the country grounded in a secular regime, while Pakistan claims that their Islamic nation is incomplete without it. "What was basically a territorial issue, they've made an ideological issue," Hoodbhoy said. This transition took place when the Kashmiri struggle became identified with the Muslim concept of jihad, the film explained. The analysis was accompanied by footage of protesters proclaiming to be "united under Allah," which had "tragic consequences for Kashmir's minorities." Massacres of Hindus began occurring in Kashmir, which led the largely Hindu India away from secularization as it sought to unite against "Islamic terrorism," according to the film. The reason for this, Hoodbhoy said, was the "urgency and immediacy of the situation" due to the continuing loss of human life, which he places at five to10 Kashmiris a day. He also posited that India's desecularization is due to the pervasiveness of hatred in both societies. An audience member asked the academic if Kashmir was the source of the conflict between the two countries, or a manifestation of the conflict. Hoodbhoy responded that while there are other issues - such as the division of waters - between them, control of Kashmir is responsible for 80 percent of the conflict. Many audience members, including Jalal, voiced criticism of the lack of representation of the Kashmiri people in the conflict, claiming that the issue had been reduced to one between the two larger countries. In response, Hoodbhoy said that since the rigged democratic Indian elections of 1987, "religion's increasing role has been responsible for the loss of Kashmiri identity. Now, people are primarily religious, and second, are Kashmiri." The people of Kashmir observe a variety of religions, including Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism, according to Hoodbhoy. He also said that "where religion is such a defining voice in our identity, there is no one Kashmiri voice." Hoodbhoy addressed the possibility of a "South Asian solution" by suggesting, "we have to primarily regard ourselves as South Asian, not Indian or Pakistani, and let these divisions blur to allow us to go from one side to another." "[Until now] suggestions have been involving the physical division [of Kashmir], and this is a mindset that has to be changed," he said. "Let the line of control be where it is; don't declare a geographic divide. Let the borders become soft; let families reunite." Hoodbhoy felt that the events of Sept. 11 led to positive steps toward rapprochement. "Musharraf had to abandon his friends, the Taliban, and he made the right choice," he said, and opened the door for peace talks between the nations. The event was sponsored by the Tufts Center for South Asian Studies, the Department of History, and the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies. It is the first in a series of events for the semester. The next event, "Globalization and the Indian Economy," will take place on Nov. 17.
Taking the SAT is stressful enough but this year's high school juniors have the added pressure of being the first class to experience the test in its new form. The changes to the test include a new written essay section, the elimination of analogies and quantitative comparisons, and the addition of shorter reading passages and more advanced math questions. The switchover from the old to the new version of the SAT leaves some high school juniors in limbo, since many students take the SAT in January of their junior year. But Tufts and other schools will require these juniors to take the new version of the test, not available until March 2005. "I've met with guidance counselors as well as College Board representatives and we suggest that the juniors wait until March and take the new test," said Susan Gallitano, guidance counselor from Sacred Heart High School in Kingston, Mass. Tufts will begin to require the new SAT I test for the Class of 2010's admissions process. Students may also still submit the American College Test (ACT) if they wish. According to Gallitano, students are most nervous about the new SAT's essay section. "Really, what's new is the new essay section ... they're sort of comparing it to the AP [Advanced Placement] exams - those essays are somewhat subjective," she said. But preparation methods for the writing section will be familiar, as students are already familiar with essay form. "At most schools, the emphasis is on writing," Gallitano said. While the old form of the test contained two sections - math and verbal - the new test will test math, writing and critical reading. A perfect score on the SAT I will no longer be a 1600, but a 2400, as each section will be scored from 200 to 800 points. According to College Board, the company which designs and administers the SAT I and II, the scores of the individual sections are not meant to be added together. The length of the test will also increase by about 30 minutes to three hours and 35 minutes. According to the College Board Web site, the SAT will retain its function as a reasoning test but changes will better reflect what high school students are learning in contemporary classrooms. College admissions officers do not anticipate that the redesign of the SAT will have a great impact on the admissions process. John Hanson, Director of Admissions for Middlebury College, which does not require the SAT, suspects that the changes will have little impact on how admissions officers choose students. "Obviously, the higher the score, the more likely it is to catch our eye, but that has always been the case," Hanson said. Tufts Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin thinks the changes to the test will be positive. "The revisions of the verbal section and the introduction of a detailed writing section parallels the academic skills we seek in a Tufts freshman," he said. Coffin pointed out that, with the new test, admissions officer will have more data to consider in reviewing an application. "The new writing section sounds very compelling ... an actual writing sample will also be available, and we plan to review those samples in addition to the formal essays we require," Coffin said. "That's all good in a 'most selective' admissions process like Tufts' and given the writing-intensive nature of the Tufts curriculum." According to Coffin, however, the SAT's role in the admissions process will not be any more important than it is now. "The SAT will continue to be a supporting piece of academic information in each application," he said. "It's all very new and we're listening to everything that's being said, I think it'll be a few years before we really feel passionately about it one way or the other," Gallitano said. She has yet to receive preparation materials from the College Board, and she said there aren't many review guides for sale. According to Coffin, potential members of the Class of 2010 have expressed some anxiety over the changes to the test. "Change and stress go hand in hand, especially when it impacts something with the perceived importance of the SAT." Coffin said. "These are good, thoughtful revisions to the SAT. Any anxiety will dissipate once the new exam is public." Applicants for the class of 2010 will not be given any leeway as he first to take the test. "Our admissions standards regarding score ranges will not change," he said. "The College Board has guaranteed the validity of the new scores," Coffin said. "In other words, the new scores equal the old scores." Universities will not necessarily be looking for students who have a total score of 2400, however. "The new scores will equate with the old scores," Coffin said. "The one temptation, I suspect, will be to add the three scores together and see 2400 as a perfect score. That seems confusing to me. We will most likely keep the writing score separate from the verbal and math scores. In other words, 1600 will be math and critical reasoning." According to Coffin, Tufts will require only two of the SAT II subject tests of the applicant's choice in addition to the SAT I Reasoning test. The writing portion of the new SAT I will be substituted for a former SAT II writing requirement. The College Board will no longer offer the writing SAT II. "My guess is that the SAT I will probably be strengthened by the addition of a writing component, but that we will learn less about a student's writing from it than we currently learn from the SAT II writing test, which will no longer be offered," Hanson said.
I have a confession to make. For several years now I have been attending weddings to which I have not been invited. In an era where bars are thinning out your wallet, clubs have lost their novelty and quality films have become a rarity, I cannot conceive of a more fulfilling alternative to Saturday night entertainment than weddings. These non-exclusive events blend the elegance of a quiet dinner and the raging boisterousness of a dance club, and they cost nothing more than perhaps your integrity. Pick any good-sized, unpretentious banquet hall on a Saturday night and you are sure to stumble upon two things: 1) a wedding reception and 2) an evening of unforgettable entertainment. Consider the following: invitations need not be shown at the door in order to attend most weddings. You need not know anyone at a wedding in order to enjoy yourself. If you find yourself dancing with the bride, tell her you are a cousin/friend of the groom. If you find yourself dancing with the groom, tell him you are a cousin/friend of the bride. To give you a better idea about how wedding-crashing works, I would like to reminisce about a steamy summer evening in St. Louis, Mo. when Frank and Lisa came together to rejoice in holy matrimony (for the purposes of this article, I have changed the names of the principals in order to protect the innocent). I know it sounds clich?©d, but this was my first crashing, and I will never forget it. Dressed like royalty, my date and I hit the interstate on schedule to arrive at a time that wedding connoisseurs would consider appropriately tardy. Unfortunately, a stalled 18-wheeler led to an hour of traffic and our inadvertently insolent arrival. It was post-dinner and we were the last guests to arrive. To our surprise, it turned out to be perfect timing. By the time we waltzed into the gaudy wedding hall, all of those familiar with the guest list had become inebriated and were losing their sharp vigilance for charlatans. This leads to the primary rule of wedding-crashing: arriving post-dinner is the most strategic principle in not getting caught. This means to not show up before 9 p.m. Most receptions have assigned seating, an obstacle I have not yet figured out how to overcome. In the course of the half dozen or so weddings I've crashed, I have never been caught ... but I can only imagine the humiliation. On this particular occasion, I noticed an extravagant cake in the corner, and my stomach became a distraction. But we were there to have a social evening, so off we went to schmooze. Bringing a video camera was my date's idea. I was skeptical, but it turned out that this seemingly ludicrous tactic became our clearance with the invited guests (who from here on I will refer to as IGs). Table by table we gathered short speeches and anecdotes educating us on the newlyweds' past, undeterred by the realization that we'd forgotten the video tape. Nevertheless, we continued our solicitations. I was surprised to learn some outrageously obscure facts, such as that Lisa once bowled a 300 and Frank once owned a peacock named Picnic. Or maybe it was Frank who bowled the 300 and Lisa who owned the peacock. Actually, I think it was an ostrich she owned. Anyway, the IGs were full of invaluable historical essentials. Later, we subtly made our presence known on the dance floor, socialized with our phony cousins-in-law over a piece of cake, and sent Lisa and Frank off on their honeymoon. It truly was Saturday night mafficking at its finest. I was apprehensive about dancing within arm's length of the bride, but at some point I found myself in her circle and had no choice but to appear comfortable and invited. Without thinking, I stepped slightly forward into the circle and showed off my trademark move: weight back on one heel, both arms shaking like I'm having a seizure, one in front of me, one behind my back, and my front leg shaking with the rhythm of my arms. A move only the truly frivolous can appreciate. Before I stepped out of the circle I noticed a change of energy in the room. The bridesmaids' faces had more color, the air was moist with sweat, and the only people not dancing were those who were physically incapable. The women around me wore subtle smiles that said "we're going to dance all night," and the men laughed and cheered as they tried to impress each other with some sort of innovative foot swagger. And then I had an epiphany. Something powerful had happened on the dance floor. It became obvious that my fresh presence was augmenting the IG's level of enjoyment. I was radiating a profound zest and vigor that only an outsider could generate. Gradually, I had become as vital to the wedding as any of the IGs. Transcending the role of an uninvited guest is the most intense jouissance a wedding crasher can experience. Upon first glimpse, wedding crashing seems like a dishonest, unethical form of entertainment at the expense of innocent people. In reality, wedding crashing is no such thing. Wedding-crash culture is for the individual who wants to give something back. It is for the selfless person who deeply manifests the desire to give and give more. I am not suggesting that Lisa and Frank, or Sarah and Steven, or Justin and Katharine should thank me for attending their weddings. And I certainly don't expect anything in return. But as the phenomenon continues to grow across the nation, it is important for the public to comprehend that crashing weddings is not an act of juvenile recklessness. Rather, it should be deemed an act of philanthropy. Certainly, I think of myself a philanthropist, and so should anyone else who partakes in wedding-crash culture. Adding that extra move to the dance floor, providing a new person for the IGs to converse with, and eating the last piece of cake undoubtedly adds an invaluable level of liveliness and energy to the festivities. For myself, attending weddings started as an outlet from a Saturday night entertainment rut, but now it has become something much more profound and meaningful - an act of community service. Where else can you dance, eat cake, and feel as generous as Mother Teresa? We all know the old saying, "You can't have your cake and eat it too," but finally, the wedding crasher has found an exception to this rule.Michael Don is a senior majoring in psychology.
In Our Midst | Stephanie Albin Like many pre-med students, senior Stephanie Albin was inspired to enter the medical field after encounters with doctors. Unlike many others', however, Albin's encounters were negative in nature. "My mother had breast cancer and lymphoma since I was a junior in high school," Albin said. Her mother's relationship with doctors was often far from positive. "They just didn't communicate to the family and to her," Albin said. "Instead of just talking about the problems, it made me want to go and actually do something about it." "It made me realize that I want to be a specific kind of doctor," Albin said. The "specific kind of doctor" Albin hopes to be will be explained in the senior honors thesis she's writing on the topic of narrative medicine. "[Narrative medicine] is the way in which language and writing affect medical training and care," Albin said. "It's all about how communication is the link between doctor and patient ... and how doctors really need to think about the social aspects of medicine." Albin's love of language and writing has manifested itself in many ways. Instead of majoring in chemistry or biology, Albin chose the arts. "I knew that if I were to go to medical school, my undergraduate education would be the only time for me to take anything non-science related, so that's why I chose to be an English major and do humanities," Albin said. Albin's writing recently appeared in TuftScope, the university's ethics and public health journal. Her article, "First Impressions of Medical Research: An Anecdotal Journal" recounted her experience as an intern at Bellevue Hospital in lower Manhattan during the summer after her freshman year. The experience affected her views on a career in the medical field. "Once you're exposed to serious problems of medical care and underserved areas, it's hard to neglect that and say, 'I'm going to go have my comfy private practice and make lots of money,'" Albin said. After medical school, Albin would like to work within the state; however, she said that "at some point ... I want to work in the humanitarian sphere." Albin's desire to help others is reflected in her extracurricular activities with the Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS). "For two years I did CHILD, which is Caring Help In Living with Disabilities," Albin said. "I was paired up with a disabled child and we played in the gym and went swimming." "Last year, and this year again, I'm going to do READ, Reading Education Advocacy and Development," Albin added. "[It involves] going to the health project and tutoring young kids and helping out with their homework. Advocating literacy is the general goal." During the summers, Albin has worked as an intern, both domestically and abroad. Albin worked in Geneva last summer, integrating her interest in language with her interest in international humanitarian aid. "I spent a month at the International Center for Migration and Health," she said. "It was a lot of researching and writing, working to create policy papers." The research focused on the AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. "I did a lot of work on HIV/AIDS, specifically within the African military," Albin said. "No one's really looking at that sector, so it's something that the organization I worked for was really spearheading." Albin enjoyed working for such a new area of medicine. "I felt like I was actually involved in some really important new topics of medical care," she said. One of Albin's many accomplishments has helped to make her multiple internships possible: Albin is a recipient of the Tufts Neubauer Scholarship. Created by Tufts graduate Joseph Neubauer, the scholarship donates money to seven or eight students per class for them to use toward any endeavor they choose. "I spent my money doing all these internships and traveling," Albin said. Before her internship in Geneva, Albin used the Neubauer money for an internship at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. "It was a two week intensive shadowing of a doctor," Albin said. "You were supposed to keep the hours of the physician, and then we had lunchtime seminars. We had some really interesting speakers come in and give lectures about different aspects of medical care." One of Albin's experiences at Robert Wood Johnson has made her ponder the difficulty of dealing with traumatic events in medicine. "There was a security guard who had been stabbed in the chest and he died," Albin said. "Hearing [the surgeon] describe it was really surreal, because all the student nurses were like, 'Oh, you missed a really cool case, we had to crack open the rib cage.'" Though Albin was horrified by the nurses' attitude, she also understood their reasons for it. "I don't think that doctors aren't sensitive to issues," Albin said. "I think for most of them, it's the only way to cope." Still, Albin said, "I don't know if I'll ever become comfortable with the idea of death and illness on such a traumatic level. I personally would like to think of a patient as a person rather than a set of organs." Practicing medicine is not Albin's only goal. "Medicine has so many opportunities," Albin said. "Just because I'm a physician, that doesn't mean that I won't be able to write policy papers or journal articles. I can pursue all those interests along with my clinical practice." Some of Albin's interests, though, were sacrificed when she reached Tufts. Before arriving at school, Albin was involved in dance. "I've taken ballet since I was five until I graduated high school," Albin said. "I was in a company where we competed and performed nationally." Though she hoped to try out for one of the many dance troupes at Tufts, between school and working as a part of LCS, Albin found herself too busy to do so. Albin has been even busier than usual since June, when she began applying and interviewing for medical school. "I want to be in New York, Manhattan proper," she said. "There are schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx ... I want to go to one of them." Albin has been close to New York all her life. Living in northern New Jersey, Albin attended the Bergen County Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology. "It was like five years of high school in four years," Albin said. "We had an extended early-August to late-June year, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m." This extra time in school helped Albin decide on her career path. "One of my favorite teachers in high school was my biology professor," she said. "He actually always envisioned me as a journalist." Albin is content with her choice in medicine, though. "I'm happy with all the decisions I've made," she said.
Tufts' new Director of Computing Systems James Roberts announced his hopes to create a comprehensive, stable computing network at the Sept. 22 School of Arts and Sciences faculty meeting. The network will serve the research needs of the entire University. "I'm very excited he's here," said Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Ernst, who introduced Roberts at the School of Arts and Sciences meeting. Roberts officially joined the School of Engineering on Sept. 1, where he will focus on enhancing and strengthening the computing infrastructure primarily in the Department of Computer Science, but in other departments as well. Roberts will also act as a consultant for the School of Arts and Sciences and to the graduate schools so that they can eventually share a common information technology (IT) network. "Everywhere, technology is moving very quickly, and we have much more student and faculty demand for effective and efficient information technology," Ernst said. "It's not to say that what we have now isn't efficient, but we have to move fast to keep up, so we need someone to focus their attention on that." The infrastructure Roberts will create at the School of Engineering is essential for in-depth research there, according to Associate Provost Mary Lee. "When you talk about research computing, you're dealing with huge data sets. You could be talking about computational biology, mapping proteins, or the human genome. All that data has to sit on something," Lee said. A strong infrastructure must have the capability to support a vast quantity of information and carry out a large number of computations during its analysis. But the system Roberts creates will not be exclusive to the School of Engineering. "It's really in concert with what's happening on campus," Lee said. "This is school-level, campus-level, and University-level. I think that's what attracted Jim to this position. Here, he has a chance to engage in computing on many different scales." Before coming to Tufts, Roberts spent 14 years as manager of computing facilities for Princeton University's Department of Computer Science. For three of those years, Roberts also acted as director of computing for Princeton's Institute of Advanced Studies, where he coordinated technology between the university's different schools for sciences, humanities, and mathematics. This position gave him the multidisciplinary experience necessary for his new job. "All the schools reported to him at that time," said Diane Souvaine, chair of Tufts' Computer Science Department, who worked alongside Roberts at the directorate of the National Science Foundation (NSF). "He proved an ability to listen to all the different constituents and re-architect the computer structure at the Institute to meet the demands of everyone that worked there." "When the new position of Director of Computing Systems was created, we were lucky enough to entice him to apply," Souvaine said. According to Lee, Roberts is an ideal fit for the University. "We already knew his work and his work style. He's very low key, easy to get along with, but very savvy and experienced, both in computer science as well as the management of people. We really wanted someone who had the skills to set up the research infrastructure we need, but also the people skills to get everyone working on the same page. Jim has that mix." Roberts arrived at Tufts as a short-term consultant in 2000, when he was hired to assess the computing infrastructure of the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering departments. He returned to campus again in 2004 to conduct a follow-up evaluation. Roberts received his undergraduate education at the University of Chicago and his masters in business administration at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Advanced Computing Systems Association (USENIX). He has previously worked for the University of California at San Diego and the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.Edits:kwb, sld, deniseTufts' new Director of Computing Systems James Roberts was introduced at the Sept. 22 School of Arts and Sciences faculty meeting, where he said he hopes to create a comprehensive, stable computing network that will serve the research needs of the entire University."It's not that Engineering is developing just their own [infrastructure], it's really in concert with what's happening on campus," Lee said. "You need security, because you don't want your data to be corrupted by outside sources. You also want it to be stable. Otherwise, the computers will be constantly crashing on you," Lee said.created a computing infrastructure that was flexible and versatile enough to allow extensive research, while remaining durable and stable enough to support large classes and computations.To accomplish this, Roberts plans to speak with Arts and Sciences faculty members with computation dependencies or those that use computation in their research to assess their personal needs and concerns. Linking the technologies of Engineering and Arts and Sciences has the potential to better the communication between the professors of those schools. Additionally, more efficient technology on campus should help students who are conducting independent research for themselves."We have seen an increased reliance on information technology," says Dean Ernst. "This will not only help faculty and teaching, but also the work of undergraduate and graduate students." Overall, the administration can agree on one thing: they are very excited to see with the new Director of Computing Systems can accomplish.
In two regattas held not-so-close to home over Homecoming Weekend, the Tufts sailing team raced its way to notable finishes in both. The Jumbos finished first this weekend at the Penobscot Bay Open, held at Maine Maritime Academy. At the Danmark Trophy Regatta, held simultaneously at the U.S. ...
This year's presidential contest is certainly a critical one in the context of recent events. We have massive troop deployment overseas, uncertainty over security on our own soil, and a shaky and tentative economic recovery. All these issues and others deserve vigorous debate between the candidates and their allies in the public sphere. What is not welcome, however, is the fear-mongering that we hear almost daily from both camps: a legitimate candidate should not have to scare Americans into voting for him. Perhaps the most visible example of the politics of fear recently is Vice President Dick Cheney's comment that voting for the wrong person (read: Kerry) would increase the risk of a terrorist attack on America. While the GOP quickly offered a half-hearted apology for the Veep's remarks, Republicans, including both the president and the vice president, continued to make similar remarks in the following weeks. This is not to say that such terrorizing of the electorate is limited to the red side of the contest. Democratic candidate John Kerry demonstrated he was able to scare "we the people" when he pointed out the continuing dangers of flying. Paralyzing Americans with fear will not make flying safer, nor will it make this country a better place to live. Unfortunately, this is not Kerry's first attempt to induce fear to gain votes. Circumspection is welcome in these uncertain times, but irrational fear is a great danger in itself. The suggestion that voting for one's opponent would be tantamount to encouraging a terrorist attack is not simply unsettling, it is un-American. The American people know what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, and they understand that as long as this nation exists it will be at risk for another attack. What the presidential candidates should know, however, is that playing on American fears of another attack is unpatriotic and disrespectful to the thousands of people who lost a loved one on that horrible day. We absolutely remember 9/11. We do not, as residents of a large east coast city, need demagogue congressmen from Middle America to work to advance their agendas by stirring our fears. These people serve no security interests with their talk; they only serve their own political ends. We do not need them stepping on the ground where thousands lost their lives too early in order to demonstrate their patriotism, and we certainly could do without unnecessary invocations of that horrible day. We remember; it is they who forget.
With yesterday being the last day for non-freshmen undergraduates to drop courses without receiving a dreaded W, the frenzy of adding and dropping for the fall semester has finally wound down. A new Tufts registration policy took effect in April 2004, giving students a lengthened, three week-long add-drop period. Though many students are grateful, for some, the extra time is still not enough. Sophomore Shanti Sattler recommends "extending the add-drop period until at least after the first mid-term" for upperclassmen. Sattler said the add-drop period was "just too short" to be used effectively. Junior Preston Dickey agreed. "I don't really consider it a shopping period," he said. Dickey says he sticks with the classes he chooses in the beginning throughout the semester. He says it is "too difficult" to pick up a class in its second week and catch up with the already-assigned work. Jo Ann Smith, Acting Registrar of the University, said that students like Dickey can help to solve their problem by changing their initial registration planning and behavior. She encourages more students to take advantage of actual registration time in planning their true schedules. "Registration in November and April for upcoming terms is a critical time for students," Smith said. As long as students adequately plan out their November and April registrations, she added, the add-drop period's "goal is achieved." "The add-drop process is for the course you could not get into, or to sit in on a course that you think you may want to add," Smith said. In addition to the extended length of the add-drop period, other changes to the current system are in the works. According to Smith, the administration is considering more changes to the add-drop system, including the possibility of an online approval process. Freshman Lauren Kari is happy that she has a lengthened drop period because it gives her more time to "get settled" into her new home and into the new style of classes, but she still feels that the add-drop period isn't long enough. "It's surprising that the add period comes up so quickly," she said. "It makes sense, but everybody talks about how long the drop period is, so it was surprising." Kari decided not to use the add-drop process, instead taking Smith's advice and using the registration period as her shopping period. "I researched what I needed for my major and went into registration and used it as a shopping period," she said. Other students say that the add period is not long enough to coordinate with professors and advisors to get the necessary signatures. Sophomore Caitlin Thompson said she would prefer "an online system where you ask for permission from each professor, and professors check it regularly to give their students permission." Sometimes, Kari said, the difficulty of a class cannot be judged until after the first exam, which is often in mid-October, after the drop period for all years other than freshmen. "I feel like the drop period should be longer in order to allow for first mid-term grades to be received," Kari added.
I am confident I speak for most undergraduates when I say that part of what I love so much about being in college is that we exist for four years (five in some cases), in a sort of blissful isolation from the conventions and expectations of what many (upperclassmen especially) disdainfully refer to as "the real world." Our hours of productivity do not generally - if ever - fall between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Rather, we're at liberty to stay out all night and sleep the better part of the sun-lit day if we choose. In academia, we have no "boss" per say; we're governed only by the guilt and anxiety our parents instill in us through weekly phone calls or electronic nagging. Yes, here, Points - not Visas - are accepted everywhere, and life seems as free as the condoms at Health Services. Indeed, within this microcosm of society we call higher education we also operate according to different standards of dress than our professional counterparts. Take hair maintenance, for example. Whether heading to Wall Street or to a writing workshop, one often feels he just doesn't have the time or energy to neatly style his hair. We pity the stock trader. He must both gel his hair and shave his beard despite his mood or schedule, because to neglect these tasks would leave him looking careless and unprofessional. The college student, however, need not worry about such matters. A baseball cap will keep hair out of sight and out of mind year 'round. We live in an environment where, fortunately, comfort seems to prevail naturally over style. While a lawyer must change out of her high heels and business suit into her tank top and capris for yoga class, the Tufts coed rarely distinguishes between "gym clothes" and "school clothes." Many times the two are synonymous. Make no assumptions about students in sweat pants, spandex or wife beaters; more often than not, they're heading to the library, not the gym. In fact, comfort is the dress code for today's college student. Unlike many working adults, we embrace the versatility of all types of clothing. Beyond gym clothes, I notice that sleepwear often doubles as one's outfit for the next day of classes. Men's undershirts and women's cotton camisoles are just two examples of underwear-gone-outerwear. One of the underlying differences between dressing for the office, as opposed to dressing for class, is that each place has its own commonly understood definition of the word "casual." Dressing casually for class often implies nothing more than actually dressing. Indeed, we are a population characterized by an overindulged sense of laziness when it comes to our appearance - I am guilty, myself. In fact, many of us have taken such advantage of the college dress code (or lack thereof), that we can not even recognize our shamefully comfortable ways until confronted with an occasion that specifically requires something nicer than, say, a Juicy sweatsuit. For others, however, "casual" is a concept applied, at best, once a week. The Casual Friday at many offices is a special, highly anticipated day by many an employee. It is a day where self expression and personal style prevail; a day for Dockers or appropriately tailored jeans; brown - rather than black - loafers; and any color polo under the sun. Sarcasm aside, if Casual Friday dress at the office mimics some of your most formal attire, you are not alone at Tufts. Whether through our dress, our schedules, or our general lack of domestic responsibility, we are constantly reminded that college is not just a place, but a lifestyle. And here, removed from many of the influences of the world beyond, it is this very lifestyle, more than the runways, which invents and perpetuates campus trends. If this actually is your office, consider yourself lucky, because here at Tufts, it seems to be the most convenient, most comfortable, most Casual Friday, everyday.
@bodytext: Flaunting its superior depth, the Tufts women's crew team rowed to strong finishes on Sunday at the Textile River Regatta, in Lowell, Massachusetts. Tufts was the only college in the regatta to field three varsity eight boats, and its depth was evident as the boats finished second, 11th, and 24th out of a field of 34 colleges. The first eight rowed an impressive race, finishing in 21:43, just seven seconds behind the University of Vermont's first team of eight. What may be even more telling, however, is the performance of Tufts' back two boats. The squad's second eight finished in 23:01, less than a minute and a half out of first, and the only other second boat to finish higher was again UVM, who's second boat finished fifteen seconds ahead in ninth place. The rowers recognize the clear advantage they hold in terms of overall team depth. "It's pretty awesome when your third boat finishes in front of a lot of school's second boats and your second finishes in front of a lot of school's firsts," senior co-captain Loi Sessions said. As a fall race, the Textile River Regatta is a head race or long distance race unlike the sprint races that occur in spring. All crews start at staggered times and do not race alongside other crews. In this regatta, the Tufts crew team competed against many crew teams from throughout New England. The beautiful weather and calm water conditions were highly conducive to racing and the varsity team was able to have an impressive first race of the season. "The conditions were very good and the weather was nice," sophomore Morgan Glasebrook said. "But it was the first regatta so we had to get used to racing again." Although junior Daniella Fairchild said that the first race can be somewhat difficult, she noted that the first varsity boat was able to overcome this. "Usually with a first race everyone is so nervous [and] it's not the best race that people have," Fairchild said. "With this race, everyone in the boat was working the whole time. Every time the stroke started to fall off, within five strokes we had it back. It was definitely a crisp race for the first time out." The first boat began to pull away from the pack at the start and continued to do so throughout the race. "We were passing boats the whole time," said Sessions, who was in the first boat. "We just rowed really well and it felt good." Senior co-captain Ashley Korb agreed. "It was more of a trial against ourselves than anything, and I think we all went out and rowed our hardest," she said. The second boat consisted mostly of sophomores, and its strong finish is especially significant for the strength of coach Gary Caldwell's varsity program, being that this was the first race for the sophomore women on a varsity level. The boat got off to a fast start, using its momentum to pass several boats near the halfway point in the race. At that point, the course, which was particularly long, began to wear on the rowers. "We mostly race 5K's in the fall, and this course was closer to a 5-and-half K race," said sophomore Katie Saville, who stroked for the second boat. "I think we weren't totally prepared to race that long of a race, 23 minutes, as hard as we can. We sort of hit a mental block in the middle, but we were able to pick it up in the end, and this first race will help us a lot in the future." While there wasn't a novice boat (consisting of only freshmen) racing for Tufts at the regatta, the team will field a novice boat at its next race, the New Hampshire Championships, held in Pembroke, New Hampshire on October 16th. "The novice coaches are pretty excited," Fairchild said. "They have at least a boat worth of people that know what they are doing, [and] they are excited because they have a great group of girls. Half of it is having the mentality to just show up and row and not get frustrated by the little things." Meanwhile, the depth of the varsity team will be a key as the team continues to prepare for the spring season. "[The team's depth] will definitely carry over into the spring," Korb said. "Having three solid boats like that increases our competitiveness against other teams. We have a huge number of girls to draw from, and on any day we can put together a boat with any girls and know that we'll have a great practice."
Students who entered the campus bookstore at the beginning ofthe year to pick up a copy of a monstrous Biology 13 required textand their very own "Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice" may havenoticed a few changes on their way downstairs.
Among those who bet on the NFL, many partake in an especially delightful type of wager known as the suicide league. Suicide leagues involve a type of bet in which every player in the league picks one team that he thinks absolutely, unequivocally, beyond a shadow of a doubt will win its game that week. Throughout the season, you can't pick the same team to win twice (preventing people from picking the New England Patriots in every game, which would be perfectly reasonable at this rate), and once you're wrong you're out. After Week Four, scores of suicide leaguers might have actually taken their namesake literally and jumped off a bridge after a Sunday rife with upsets. It was a bad weekend to be a favorite. When the New York Giants beat the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, it seemed as if the G-men entered some sort of weird, magical portal to a place where all their problems just disappeared. All of a sudden, Tiki Barber has a vice grip on the football. He hasn't fumbled yet, and he leads the NFL in rushing yards and total yardage from scrimmage. Kurt Warner looks like he's running the Greatest Show on Turf again. Does Peyton Manning have a brother? We honestly can't recall. Jeremy Shockey hauled in 74 yards and a TD and got back to acting just enough like a psycho to inspire the rest of his team, and the defense held the Pack to a touchdown and knocked Brett Favre out of the game. The San Diego Chargers just tossed around the Tennessee Titans. Now before people get upset, yes, "Inside the NFL" recognizes that Steve McNair didn't play. But let's face it, McNair's been a bum so far this year. He's such a fighter that he is bound to pick it up eventually, but on Sunday the Titans were probably better off with backup Billy Volek, who had a very good game, passing for 278 yards, two touchdowns and no picks. The fact is, the Chargers just outplayed Tennessee, picking apart the defense and shutting down Titans running back Chris Brown. The New Orleans Saints continued Week Four's upset train by losing 34-10 to the Arizona Cardinals. The Saints made Emmitt Smith the Grey look like Emmitt the Great, which should tell you something about the shakiness of the Saints D. Help may finally be on the way, however, as cornerback Mike McKenzie finally whined his way out of Green Bay and onto the Saints on Monday in a trade for a second round draft pick and back-up quarterback J.T. O'Sullivan. Going into the season, most fans saw the Baltimore Ravens taking on the Kansas City Chiefs in Week Four and probably anticipated a good looking match up. Instead, the Chiefs have been playing miserably, and were serious underdogs going in to the game. Keeping the upset pattern alive, K.C. saved its season by edging out the Ravens, 27-24. The Houston Texans also scored a minor upset by beating the Oakland Raiders 30-17, as did the Cleveland Browns by winning against the Washington Redskins, 17-13. All told, seven underdogs knocked off favorites, forgetting the spread. What does all this nonsense actually tell us about the NFL, other than the fact that gambling is not only highly addictive but not terribly lucrative either? It reminds us of one clear, immutable fact about good NFL teams. The really good ones, the ones that aren't just the flavor of the month, always beat bad teams. As a matter of fact, all a team usually has to do is beat the sub-par teams, and that's almost ten wins right there. The good teams do it every time. And who are those good teams? Right now, the Atlanta Falcons are certainly making a name for themselves. After beating the Carolina Panthers 27-10, Atlanta is now 4-0, playing great defense, and in solid control of the NFC South. The Philadelphia Eagles, New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, and Indianapolis Colts all continue to look like Super Bowl caliber teams, and the Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Jets aren't looking too shabby themselves. The Jags lost a close one to Indy, but their defense remains tough and quarterback Byron Leftwich may finally be getting the offense on track. The Jets, now 3-0, continue to play well in the capable hands of coach Herm Edwards, and the defense is getting better each week. As for all those upstart upset teams, one might want to hold off on judgment for now. Despite strong performances against good teams, it's tough to put any stock in the Cardinals or Chargers, and even the Chiefs still have a long, long way to go. The Giants, on the other hand, might deserve another look. The only team they've lost to is the Eagles, and its tough to fault them for that considering the way Philly's been playing. Could the Giants be for real? They take on the Dallas Cowboys next week in what will be an important game that they should be able to win. That would put them at 4-1 going into their bye week, and that ain't bad.
My life, when it comes to humor, has reached its high point; itcannot be surpassed. I made Jon Stewart laugh.
It may be playoff time, but there is an unresolved regular season issue tugging at my mind. These teams and players just don't fall off the face of the earth, you know? OK, so I'll be the first to admit that Frank Francisco, the Rangers pitcher who was suspended for the season, is out of his mind. Throw a chair into a group of fans, and you should get the book thrown back at you. Fair enough. But in the witch hunt that has ensued, where can we hear Francisco's side of the story? An apology may come first, but what comes next would be the best part. His rationale. To be expected would be lines such as: "Most fans come in pursuit of autographs. Isn't a broken nose from a professional ballplayer just a little bit cooler?" "The ballboy told me I could use his chair and I said 'Really?' and he replied 'Yeah, go nuts with it', so I did." "You know how a couple of fans attacked that first base coach from Kansas City [Tom Gamboa]? Well, I just thought someone had to pay for that." "Don't these folks know they aren't supposed to mess with Texas?" "Hey, at least I didn't throw one of my cleats. Haha ... wow ... imagine getting hit by one of those?" You see, when told from the right point of view, the episode takes on a little bit of a different light. Seriously, I can think of a hundred times where I probably have deserved multiple fold-up chairs to the nose while I've been at a sporting event. In 1994, the last year of the ole Boston Garden, I was a suburban punk seventh grader who had just scored pretty sweet seats on the first level for a December game against the reigning champion Houston Rockets, about 15 rows up from the Celts bench. Needless to say, if anyone is familiar with the 1994-1995 Celtics, the atmosphere was a little less than playoff-like. Dominique Wilkins was on the team, but he had left his 1987 legs and court sense at home for the season. Anyways, in a Garden that resembled a mortuary, we were throwing out what we thought at the time to be some very juicy zings. We thought we could light a fire under our sleep-walking team by hollering trash talk at them in our pre-pubescent voices. "Hey 'ominique, you're missing something. I think it's D!!" "Eighteen million (banging on the seats in front of us)(ba ba ba-ba-ba) Eighteen million (ba ba ba-ba-ba)". This was my personal fave, aimed at Croatian forward Dino Radja. This guy was a missed layup waiting to happen, and I'm pretty sure he had a lit Marlboro Red in his mouth on most trips up the floor. Regardless, no contract is worth listening to little jerks who think they know everything (We're in junior high, man. We rock) yell ceaselessly at the floor. He threw a few dirty looks, or what we thought to be dirty looks, in our direction. I wanted to throw a chair at my seventh grade self as I remember this story. Granted, the fans that Francisco and teammate Doug Brocail targeted in Oakland probably had a bit more coming out of their mouths than contract and performance-based quips. There had to have been some personal attacks the likes of which it is hard for us to comprehend considering how violently the players reacted. But some action should be taken towards fans who are verbally hitting below the belt. Maybe the Rocky V route would be the best way to go. Like Tommy Gunn pulling Rocky Balboa out of that bar for a street fight for the ages, Francisco could have set an appointment for after the game right in the parking lot of Network Associates Coliseum. Or it could play out like the WWE, with Francisco stomping up to the PA announcer's microphone, telling any and all what a candy ass that man in section 6J is and announcing in Bob Barker style that he doesn't just want a piece of that man, but rather he wants the whole thing. Fans would get more than they thought they had paid for, a free fight on the Jumbotron at the time they would usually be waiting in traffic after the game. Goodbye endangered bystanders, hello blood-crazed viewer. All kidding aside, players pulling a Hanson Brothers or a Terry O'Reilly on paying customers shouldn't be tolerated, but fans shouldn't have license to be outright buffoons. I mean, all reports indicate that it wasn't the woman who got hit but rather her husband who was doing most of the talking. He may brag that he's going to keep heckling visiting bullpens, but something tells me his wife won't exactly welcome that idea with open arms. Part of this plea is to call attention to the fact that Francisco, August's AL Rookie of the Month (3-0, 1.69 ERA) obviously had some aggression to let out, and I am simply calling for avenues onto which said pitcher could release this aggression. The man had his reasons, ya know?
Despite suffering its first loss of the fall season, the women'stennis team still has its gaze solely fixed upon its ultimate goalfor the spring: a national title run.
I do not think I have ever written a column inspired by another column that appeared in The Tufts Daily, but this week I am compelled to react to Evan Cochran's column (09/30) about cocaine use at Tufts. Highlighting the dangers of cocaine and Mr. Cochran's apathy towards said dangers is too obvious for this space though. The very first line of Mr. Cochran's column is the problem that I care to discuss: "Tufts University has a serious cocaine problem." As a senior, this is the first time I have ever seen or heard any sort of acknowledgement of cocaine use here at Tufts, outside casual conversation amongst students. The problem of cocaine use at Tufts, (or at any of our peer institutions where it exists), is a silent one, literally and figuratively. Nearly all conversation and interventions on drug use on campus relate to alcohol, and it is fairly easy to understand why. On any given weekend, there is a greater number of students under the influence of alcohol than using cocaine. But the harm to those students who are using cocaine far exceeds the harm that most students using alcohol will ever incur. Cocaine is extremely addictive, and its users often build tolerances and need to use larger and larger amounts in order to achieve a high. The harm to individual users rarely governs drug policy in this country, though. Instead of the problem of drug use, we are overwhelmingly concerned with its symptoms. At Tufts, and in society in general, we tend to treat these symptoms as problems in and of themselves, often at the cost of effective policy. Tufts' alcohol policy is a prime example of this paradigm. Over the past two years, the University's "crackdown" on drinking has done little to change the overall prevalence of drinking and the incidence of drinking-related injuries on campus. However, it has reduced the number of loud parties on Professors' Row, the number of beer cans strewn across the President's Lawn and the number of drunken people in West Hall on the Naked Quad Run. While none of these reductions are negative, there have been other serious unintended consequences of such brilliant policies as threatening "well-behaved" fraternity houses with loss of their housing licenses, "banning" first-year students from fraternity parties during orientation and herding students like cattle into and out of West Hall (with Krispy Kremes outside!) during NQR. More and more underclassmen are drinking in their dorms, as testified to by informal evidence and TEMS reports. In this environment, hard alcohol use dominates, and access is unfettered by lines to a keg. Distractions in the form of dancing next to a cute boy/girl are absent. Drinking becomes THE activity, instead of one of several. So why do we continue these policies? Because of our definition of the problem of alcohol use. The problem is not that people are drinking, or even that underage students are drinking. The problem is that drunken students bother our oh-so-fragile neighbors in Somerville. Trustees see drunken naked students, and that drinking sometimes ends in vandalism or personal injury. (Yes, only sometimes, because if you add up the number of students drinking on a given weekend night, the percentage involved in serious problems is minute.) We do not attempt to address the issue of why students are drinking. Part of this is because we know there is little we can do. A common theory in political science is that issues do not become serious problems unless there is something we can do about them. Tufts' alcohol-use rates do not stand out amongst other schools. In the United States (Brigham Young University excepting) alcohol is part of the college experience. But rather than accepting this and teaching students to drink responsibly, we keep our students drinking in enclosed dorm rooms and off the streets. The "problem" of cocaine does not exist. Crack vials are not strewn all over Professors Row on Sunday mornings. We have yet to have a cocaine overdose. Tufts' student coke addicts are not robbing convenience stores throughout Somerville and Medford. But why do problems have to reach this level before we concern ourselves with them? Shouldn't the use of cocaine on campus be a concern in and of itself? While it is hard to get data on any illicit drug use, we know that there is cocaine use at Tufts, and we even know where it occurs. American health policy has long been embodied in the curative paradigm, where we treat direct health problems instead of acknowledging risk factors and working to prevent said problems from ever emerging. The college health world has been evolving away from this of late. Unfortunately, Tufts remains behind the trend, despite our proclaimed commitment to health and wellness, in that we have no dedicated health education personnel. As other schools create wellness centers, acknowledging the interaction between alcohol and drug use, mental health, disordered eating and physical fitness, we remain compartmentalized, wearing blinders. Our lack of coordination is astounding and dangerous. There are health programs going on on-campus without any medical input. We have eating-disordered students teaching others about the dangers of obesity as they continue to destroy their own insides with a lack of caloric intake. We have counselors working with those upset with their bodies unaware of the individualized fitness programs available at the gym. And events like Naked Quad Run are planned with complete disregard of the experiences and research of health professionals. But until a crisis emerges, we won't do anything. And even then, the University will have a knee-jerk, irrational response that does little or nothing to address the real problem. As long as a problem is quiet, it is not a problem at all. So ignore those people snorting lines in the bathroom ... we've got alcohol to demonize.Adam Pulver is a senior majoring in community health and political science. He can be reached via email at Adam.Pulver@tufts.edu.
