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After cancellation, shuttle to return
October 7The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate may restart the on-again, off-again Boston Bus Shuttle as soon as Oct. 17, if contract negotiations pan out.
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Kaplan discusses art and minorities
October 7SUNY, Purchase Professor Paul Kaplan gave a lecture last night entitled "Jewish Artist and Black Africans in Renaissance Art." He spoke about the presence and representation of these minorities, citing examples such as the poor treatment of Jews in Venice. He profiled one talented Jewish artist, Moisè dal Castellazzo, and described how he gained special privileges due to the popularity of his works. For more information, see Arts.
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Ally Gimbel | When kiwis fly
October 7I just want to make one thing perfectly clear: I am not a sports fan. I have no idea what "offside" means and the only time I ever cared about Tom Brady was when he modeled underwear for Calvin Klein. Other than that, sports have never really entered my field of interests.
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The Microblog | For a change of pace, professors discuss the way they want their students to study
October 7With midterm season upon us, students across campus are feverishly reading textbooks, some for the first time this semester. While some will swear by the near silence of the library, others will passionately defend their choice to study with the sounds of Blink-182 and Jay-Z blasting in the background.
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Trick turning and beyond: Students shop for their groceries at Tufts' dining halls
October 7While few claim to leave Dewick-MacPhie or Carmichael Dining Halls with empty stomachs, their bulging pockets might indicate otherwise.
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Senate to focus on health issues
October 7Tufts Community Union (TCU) senators Sunday night toyed with the idea of creating online avenues to respond to students' frequently asked questions about issues relating to student medical services.
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Massachusetts residents to vote on whether to keep income tax
October 7What would happen if the Massachusetts income tax were abolished?
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Obama, McCain spar on economy
October 7John McCain got what he wanted last night: a town hall-style debate.
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Ranking the ranking systems
October 6At the onset of each school year, prospective students typically flock to two sources of information regarding the long and arduous college admissions process that sits inevitably ahead of them: U.S. News & World Report's and The Princeton Review's annual rankings and descriptions of the country's top colleges and universities.
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Ranking the ranking systems: As approach comes under fire, a look at leading strategies
October 6At the onset of each school year, prospective students typically flock to two sources of information regarding the long and arduous college admissions process that sits inevitably ahead of them: U.S. News & World Report's and The Princeton Review's annual rankings and descriptions of the country's top colleges and universities. While some students view college rankings as a wealth of information over the course of the application process, dog-earing pages and color-coding their lists of choices, others consider them neither beneficial nor valid. As a result, a new breed of college ranking systems is being developed to target high school students in a different way. The college ranking industry is a complex business and a crucial component of the college admissions culture. In spite of their dominance, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said that some rankings can be misleading. "While I can't speak for everyone at Tufts, guides are often arbitrary, and the methodology of collecting data can be anything but scientific at times," Reitman said. "I don't typically look at the reviews and I don't give a lot of credence or validity to the college guides, but I also know that we can't just disregard them, because a lot of students look at them." The two most popular ranking resources represent a dichotomy. While U.S. News & World Report uses five factors to calculate an institution's score, The Princeton Review uses more subdivisions. For example, The Princeton Review's "quality of life" rating evaluates beauty, safety, location, food, dorms, the friendliness of students, student interaction and the school's relationship with the local community. While U.S. News & World Report awards the most weight to "Peer Assessment," which has deans and presidents from other institutions evaluate a peer school, The Princeton Review relies solely on students from the institution to gather its information. But the fundamental difference between the two systems is that U.S. News and World Report actually ranks the schools in numerical order, while The Princeton Review does not. "We don't rank on a one-to-100 scale because there is no such thing as a best school. Rather, there is a best-fit school for every student. We provide what we believe to be the best schools in the country, and they are all excellent for different reasons, but it is not appropriate to assign rankings to schools that are all completely different from each other," said Rebecca Lessem, senior editor of The Princeton Review's publication "The Best 368 Colleges." Considering the number of colleges and universities to which students apply, college guides are becoming increasingly crucial for some. For those who cannot come to the school for a tour or stay overnight with a current student — like many of Tufts' international contingent — there is little to rely on beyond a reputation and an image promoted by guidance counselors, word of mouth and tools like The Princeton Review and U.S. News and World Report. Proponents of the system contend that the main advantage of rankings is that they provide a way for families to make smart financial decisions and allow students to compare colleges and universities in a standardized way. And in the chaotic world of college admissions, guides are sources of accessible, comparative data. But Director of Admissions Susan Garrity Ardizzoni explained that there has been an ongoing discussion in admissions circles encouraging schools to withhold the information U.S. News & World Report uses to formulate its list in an effort to discourage students from relying on a ranking system. As traditional rankings systems are being called into question, a number of new ones are emerging. Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, has spent the last year matching internal data from employee evaluations with information about the colleges its engineers attended. This information will be used to create a ranking system that links a college with its graduates' success. "It's really about improving the dialogue on curriculum, performance and how we can build a stronger relationship between the colleges, universities and us because, ultimately, their students become our employees," said Richard D. Stevens, Boeing's senior vice president for human resources and administration, in an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) is also producing its own ranking system: America's Best Colleges. According to the business publication Forbes, the ranking will include more practical evaluations such as future career prospects and amount of debt after college, and is based on considerations such as student review Web sites, notable alumni, the number of students graduating in four years, and the number of students and faculty members who have won nationally competitive awards. Another development in the world of college rankings is called the National Survey for Student Engagement (NSSE), which works to comprehensively determine the quality of the student experience. The NSSE gathers information about student participation in programs and activities that institutions provide for their learning and development. The results are intended to show how students spend their time and what they gain from attending college. Among Tufts students, there seems to be a consensus that a college's ranking is less important than finding a school that matches interests. "How you feel about Tufts depends on where you are coming from and how you wish to be involved. And there are some measures that schools look at that the ranking process doesn't or can't take into account," Reitman said. "I think there is a subconscious college ranking system within our culture that I was somewhat dependent on during the application process. But when I sat down and weighed the pros and cons of each school I was considering, I realized that ranking is secondary," freshman Tori Elliott said. "The point is to get the most out of your education, and that transcends rankings." Nevertheless, rankings and guides have become such important advertising tools for schools around the country that they seem to have carved out a lasting place for themselves in the market. "While we put the guide together for the benefit of students using it, the guide secondarily serves as an advertisement for the school, especially because we often feature small-name schools or schools that give these student consumers the best financial deal," Lessem said.
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Police Briefs
October 6LAPTOP LOST AND FOUND The Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) received a call from the Medford Police Department at 11 a.m. last Wednesday requesting that an officer come to a store on the corner of Boston Avenue and North Street. An individual was attempting to sell a laptop to the store, but when the worker checked it, the computer turned out to belong to a Tufts student. A TUPD officer called the student, who told the officer that he had left his room at 123 Packard Avenue days prior when a fire alarm went off and that when he returned, his laptop was missing. He never reported the theft. The student came to the store and identified his laptop. The individual trying to sell the laptop was arrested for receiving stolen property worth over $250. ECO UNFRIENDLY TUPD officers responded to a call at 12:25 a.m. last Wednesday reporting a verbal altercation at South Hall. Two students had disposed of a large plastic pretzel container in a garbage bin because the recycling bin was full. Another student excitedly told them that they should have recycled it. He was "passionate about recycling," TUPD Sgt. Robert McCarthy said. The officers talked to the three individuals and told them to stop arguing, and that while they probably should have recycled the container, it was not worth starting a fight.
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Jessie Borkan | College Is As College Does
October 6I learned very early on that when my mom says something is "interesting," it means she doesn't like it. This goes primarily for food, but also applies to clothes, movies, haircuts and boyfriends.
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Jessie Borkan | College is as college does
October 6I learned very early on that when my mom says something is "interesting," it means she doesn't like it. This goes primarily for food, but also applies to clothes, movies, haircuts and boyfriends. In my household, "interesting" is the last adjective you want to evoke; over the years it has gone from diplomatic to downright insulting, so you can imagine my shock when I arrived at Tufts and heard it aimed at professors and their scholarly texts approximately 87,324 times a day. The first time one of my classmates said it to a professor, I winced. The wincing has not stopped since. Why is it that "interesting" is the only word Tufts students can come up with to preface a comment about class material? We are an intelligent, verbose and ostentatious crowd with an average SAT Verbal score somewhere in the low 700s. You'd think we could — and would be dying to — manage something a little more impressive. But instead, like that guy from freshman year you just can't stop hooking up with, we are stuck on that old standby: interesting. Every time I hear someone use it, I immediately care less about what they are about to say. In fact, my abhorrence of any one of my poor, unsuspecting classmates is directly proportional to how often they use the word. I am repulsed by the sound of it, and it turns out I'm not the only one. Upon presenting my secret rage to others, I was met with enthusiastic agreement. Apparently, this horrible word-plague even transcends languages; nothing makes my friend Emma's blood boil like the word "interesante." Every person I've spoken to about the issue agrees: This has got to stop. I can't help but wonder how professors take it day after day. Do they feel patronized? Insulted? Lied to? Perhaps, like a bunch of clueless cuckolds, each believes that students reserve the word only for his or her classes. If this is true, then our faculty is seriously getting played. But I think they recognize the pattern. Let's be honest, our professors collect Ph.D.s like I horde Dewick silverware; they are not a bunch who are easily taken in. They are just able to see past that godforsaken word to the content of what a student is saying, or else they appreciate the effort it took for someone to say something at all. Well, guess what? I'm not, and I don't. I do understand why it happens. It's a crime that, like referring to the library as "the libes" or overusing the word "like," is as innocuous as it is infuriating, and we are all guilty of it. With the pressure to pipe up in class or risk losing participation points, in a caffeine-saturated academic environment that never sleeps and has rising standards of achievement, sometimes a half-observation, half-opinion made relevant by using everybody's favorite describing word is simply all we can muster. But I know we can do better, and I have a feeling the key to ending this oppressive vocabulary regime lies in contradicting it. Say it with me, Tufts: "This article I just read entitled ‘Ancient Phoenician Boating and Sea Trade' was completely, mind-numbingly NOT interesting." There, feel better? It does not make you less intelligent to be less than compelled by something, and every reaction to information needn't be intrigue. Not all students can be riveted by everything they read or discuss in class. It wouldn't be normal, and it would make for an incredibly boring intellectual terrain. So, the next time you are in class and feeling the same way about last night's reading that my mom felt about the pancake soup I made her for Mother's Day in '94, try saying what she meant instead of what she said. You might surprise yourself.
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Dewick-MacPhie worker dies
October 5A Tufts dining employee collapsed last night in the Dewick-MacPhie Dining Hall, ostensibly from a heart attack, sources familiar with the incident told the Daily. As of press time, the Daily was unable to confirm the name of the deceased.
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Out-of-state Jumbos rely on absentee ballots
October 5Politically engaged campus? Check. A historic election approaching? Check. Internet access? Check. For college students, the motivations and ways to vote — even for those living long distances from their hometowns and voting booths — are innumerable.
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Michael Goetzman | Spotlight
October 5I recently took some time to meet with Jumbo on the Academic Quad, but the interview was a bit — well — stiff. So I hit the books instead.
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Grassley suspects conflict of interest
October 5U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has accused Tufts Medical Center heart specialist Marvin Konstam of ignoring conflicts of interest while working for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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Visiting the Hill
October 5MONDAY "Professor van Hoven from Eco-Life Expeditions" Details: The founder of Eco-Life Expeditions, Professor Wouter van Hoven of Pretoria University, will be showing a film and answering questions about his work and study program. When & Where: 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.; Pearson 106 Sponsor: Pre-Veterinary Society "Free Dinner, Movie and Interview with Errol Morris" Details: "Standard Operating Procedure,"(2008) a film that examines the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody, will be shown. Food will be served and the film will be followed by a live discussion with filmmaker Errol Morris via Web cast. When & Where: 6:30 p.m.; Cabot 205 Sponsor: PANGEA "Ask a Sexpert" Details: Sexologist Logan Levkoff, an expert on college relationships, will speak to students. When & Where: 8:00 p.m.; Pearson 104 Sponsor: Hillel "Marketing for Social Change: ‘Getting People to Stop Smoking'" Details: Lori Fresina of M&R Strategic Services will be leading a discussion on getting people to stop smoking. When & Where: 6:00 p.m.; Braker 202 Sponsor: Communications and Media Studies Program TUESDAY "Self-Assembling AY-Peptide Nanotubes: A New Approach to Functionalized Nanotubes" Details: Professor Juan Granja of the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela will lecture on nanotubes. When & Where: 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.; Pearson 106 Sponsor: Chemistry Department "Jewish Artist and Black Africans in Renaissance Art" Details: Paul Kaplan, professor of art history at SUNY, Purchase, will discuss the role of Jewish and black Africans in Renaissance art. Kaplan has published many articles, and he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the portrayal of black Africans in European art. When & Where: 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m; 155 Granoff Music Center Sponsors: Department of Art and Art History and the Africa in the New World Minor WEDNESDAY "Peace and Diplomacy in the Middle East" Details: Former Deputy National Security Advisor and National Security Council Chief of Staff Mara Rudman will discuss diplomatic relations in the Middle East as part of a speaker series this fall on U.S. foreign policy hosted by Professor John Shattuck, former assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor and former ambassador to the Czech Republic. When & Where: 12:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.; Tisch Library, Austin Conference Room Sponsor: Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service "Human Factors: Engineering and Design of the ‘Reach' Toothbrush" Details: John Kreifeldt, a former Tufts professor, will discuss the design and development of the Reach Toothbrush. Kreifeldt and Percy H. Hill designed the toothbrush in 1972 and sold it to Johnson & Johnson. When & Where: 3:00 p.m. to 4:20 p.m.; Barnum 008 Sponsor: Tufts Human Factors & Ergonomics Society "Making Space for Asian American Artists" Details: Giles Li and Eugene Shih will talk about their arts organization and its role in supporting Asian Pacific American artistic expression. The lecture will be followed by a dinner reception at the Start House. When & Where: 4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.; 155 Granoff Music Center Sponsor: Asian American Center "Reflections on the Middle East in World Affairs" Details: Stanley Hoffman, the Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser university professor at Harvard University, will discuss the Middle East as part of the fall 2008 Fares Lecture Series. When & Where: 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.; Cabot 702 Sponsor: Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies THURSDAY "Computer Science Seminar" Details: Jim Waldo of Sun Microsystems Labs will discuss computer science and virtual worlds. When & Where: 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at 111A Halligan Hall Sponsor: Norman Ramsey FRIDAY "Decision '08: Brown Bag Lunch with Simon Rosenberg" Details: President and New Democrat Network Founder Simon Rosenberg (A '85) will discuss the 2008 election. R.S.V.P. is required. Fruit salad and drinks will be provided. When & Where: 12:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.; Lincoln Filene Center, Rabb Room Sponsor: Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service "Racial Bias in the Police Decision to Shoot" Details: Joshua Correll, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, will discuss the impact of complexity and control in the police decision to shoot as part of this year's Diversity and Cognition Lecture Series. When & Where: 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m; Anderson 306 Sponsor: Diversity and Cognition Lecture Series
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Expansion of new JumboCash in the works
October 5Tufts' administrators and members of student government are always looking for ways to simplify students' lives, be it through providing the Joey for easy access to Davis Square, or allowing them to register for classes from their dorm rooms through the online SIS system.
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Student groups and locals meet on the Hill for food and festivities on Community Day
October 5Students strolling through the academic quad yesterday might have had to dodge crawling toddlers, but lemonade and candied apples awaited those who were able to navigate the crowds.
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