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The Setonian
News

Senate holds in-house vote

May 17

    A day after this year's presidential election, newly elected members of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate selected new leaders for the body's Executive Board and Allocations Board (ALBO) as well as Senate committee chairs during in-house elections on April 28.     Junior Antonella Scarano will serve as vice president, freshman Aaron Bartel as treasurer, sophomore Tomas Valdes as historian and freshman Danielle Cotter as parliamentarian. Freshman Kate de Klerk will serve as associate treasurer. They will round out the Executive Board, led by newly elected TCU President Brandon Rattiner, a junior.     The senators also chose new committee chairs last night. Sophomore Sam Wallis and freshman Joel Greenberg will co-chair the Services Committee; sophomore Samia Zahran — who this year ran unsuccessfully for TCU president — will serve as the chair of the Administration and Policy Committee; freshman Nunu Luo will serve as the chair of the Education Committee; sophomore Nedghie Adrien will chair the Culture, Ethnicity and Community Affairs (CECA) Committee; and sophomore Edward Chao will serve as the Student Outreach Committee chair.     Chao's ascension came after a constitutional mix-up. Senate members had originally instructed the Elections Commission (ECOM) to dissolve the Student Outreach Committee. They elected Chao, a sophomore, as the chair of the Special Projects Committee, which would have taken on the responsibilities that have traditionally fallen under the purview of the Student Outreach Committee.     But the Student Outreach Committee cannot be dissolved; it is one of five committees specifically named in the TCU Constitution. The Constitution does not mention the Special Projects Committee, however, and it can be dissolved.     After senators and ECOM realized the mistake, the Special Projects Committee was dissolved, and Chao was named to lead the Student Outreach Committee, which will now take on the responsibilities of the Special Projects Committee.     The Senate also chose six new members of ALBO, although nine total will serve on the board. Rattiner, as the TCU president, automatically serves on the board, and two spots are reserved for next year's freshman senators. Scarano, Wallis, de Klerk, Greenberg, Chao and sophomore Dan Pasternack were elected to the six open spots.     Scarano, the only member of last year's Executive Board to return to the Senate, said she was looking forward to using her experiences working on "very large decisions" the Senate made last year and making sure senators were passionate about their projects.     "I really think it's going to be a different Senate than last year," she said. "There are a lot of new members on the body; there's a very young Exec Board."     Bartel, who was the TCU assistant treasurer last year, said he was excited to work with the rest of the Executive Board.     "I think we have a group of very enjoyable, hardworking people," he said. "I see it as our responsibility to get the most enjoyment out of the Student Activities Fee as possible, and hopefully I'll be able to achieve that goal."     Rattiner, a junior, told the Daily after the elections that he was looking forward to working with the newly elected Senate leaders.     "I'm excited by the energy and the optimism that's being brought by the new members of the Executive Board and committee chairs," he said. "I think it's going to be one of the most supportive, accessible Senates we've seen in a very long time."     The chairs for the of Services Committee and Administration and Policy Committee were chosen in the only uncontested seats in the elections.

The Setonian
News

Rattiner wins TCU presidency

May 17

Junior Brandon Rattiner won the Tufts Community Union (TCU) presidency on the last day of classes this semester, April 27, with Senators Chas Morrison and Samia Zahran finishing in second and third place, respectively.

The Setonian
News

Spring Fling leads to mass casualty incident

April 26

Authorities declared a mass casualty incident (MCI) during Spring Fling, as the number of patients emergency services had to deal with during one point on Saturday afternoon exceeded the number that their resources could support. Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS) received 30 calls, according to TEMS advisor Geoffrey Bartlett. At least 10 students were sent to local hospitals, according to Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Sgt. Robert McCarthy. A rush of calls over a few hours overwhelmed ambulance services. Armstrong Ambulance Service, which covers Medford, declared an MCI after it — along with Cataldo Ambulance Service, which works in Somerville — did not have enough ambulances to transport patients from the annual event, which featured rappers Ludacris and Asher Roth as well as The Decemberists and two Tufts student bands.  "In my recollection of TEMS history, this is the only time that I'm aware of that TEMS has been involved with a formally declared MCI," said Bartlett, who first became involved with the service as an undergraduate in the mid-1990s. Bartlett is also the technical services manager at the Department of Public Safety. "The volume, frankly, was surprising," Bartlett said. "We've never seen so many emergencies at Spring Fling." Because the Medford-Somerville line runs through the President's Lawn, at which Spring Fling took place, both Medford and Somerville emergency services joined the university in responding to the event. As soon as the MCI declaration was made, Bartlett said, ambulances could begin coming in from outside the immediate communities. Temperatures were unseasonably warm during Saturday's concert, which saw four TEMS teams on the ground covering the event and campus. Representatives of local emergency services and the university staffed an incident command station at Tisch Library, coordinating services throughout the day. "This Spring Fling was very, very busy [compared to past years]," said junior Allie Krill, the executive director of Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS). Bartlett would not comment on the types of calls TEMS received, citing privacy concerns. "Our students who work for TEMS did an outstanding job yesterday," Bartlett said. "We certainly took measures ahead of time, but they still had to work more than we ever had to see a TEMS detail at Spring Fling have to work."

The Setonian
News

Friedman, Fletcher students tackle recession

April 26

Students at Tufts' Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy recently brought the economic recession into the classroom after spending significant time in Boston's communities investigating the downturn's effects on the people with which they regularly interact.

The Setonian
News

RapeLay, a Japanese video game depicting rape, prompts discussion about cultural differences

April 26

    A recent call by New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to ban a Japanese computer game in which players stalk and rape women on subways is drawing attention to cultural differences between the United States and Japan as exhibited in computer and video games.     As several Web sites, such as Slate.com and LATimes.com point out, efforts to ban the game are largely moot, as the game, RapeLay, is not available from American retailers and is not listed on Amazon.com or eBay.com. However, one can find a download of a translated version of the game in seconds on Google.com.     RapeLay is part of a genre of games in Japan known as eroge, or hentai. The games are more part of the pornography industry than the video game industry at large. A Slate.com article noted that eroge games are "usually sold alongside glossy comics, figurines, and animated smut in shops that cater to a common fetish for animated women; they don't share shelf space with Super Mario and Halo."     Although many would find the sexual violence in RapeLay repulsive, the gory violence present in Western games is likewise not very acceptable in Japan. Although the highly violent action game Gears of War 2 sold 1.4 million copies on its first day on American store shelves, Microsoft chose to not release the game in Japan.     In Gears of War 2, enemies often explode when shot with powerful weapons, which often results in blood and gore spraying the camera. One weapon frequently used is a chainsaw bayonet, which can cut enemies clean in half.     Even extremely violent games developed in Japan might not see the light of day in their country of origin. The Japanese game MadWorld, hailed as "blood-soaked action for the [Nintendo] Wii" by its publisher Sega, was recently released in the United States, but has not yet come to Japanese stores. And according to Sega, it may never.     Junior Ron Laidley believes that the difference between the violence in Japanese and American games is a matter of realism.     "Having played a lot of Japanese games, they are less violent than Western games when it comes to realism. With Western games, like Gears of War, you get very realistic, detailed deaths. Japanese games tend to depict less realistic violence but trade it for more disturbing images and perverse themes," Laidley said in an e-mail to the Daily. "Western games, whether violent or not, always try to be realistic, while many Japanese try to be more artistic, often throwing reality to the wind."     Laidley noted, however, that many Japanese games still have ample amounts of extremely graphic violence.     Although RapeLay is part of a fringe industry, it does exemplify the greater amount of sexual content in mainstream Japanese video and computer games than in Western games.     "Western games just simply throw in sex to be seen, not interacted with … However, there are a fair number of sexual games released in Japan, not including the simulation game genre, based solely on pornographic material," Laidley said.     Laidley noted the popular Dead or Alive series of fighting games as a prime example of the prevalent sexual content in some Japanese games. The games are known not only for their solid game play mechanics, but also for their underdressed female characters.     But even relatively moderate amounts of sexual content in Western games can result in controversy. The 2007 game Mass Effect drew massive controversy after Fox News reported that the game had a "graphic" sex scene. In response, Jeff Brown, Electronic Arts vice president of communications said in a statement, "Sex scenes in Mass Effect are not graphic. These scenes are very similar to sex sequences frequently seen on network television in prime time." Mass Effect is rated M for Mature, which means that the game is not recommended for users under age 17 by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.     Although gamers and non-gamers alike might find perverse sexual content in games like RapeLay repulsive, many in other countries find just as offensive the images of limbs being severed and heads exploding that are so common in many popular Western games.

The Setonian
News

TCU government: what it is, what it isn't and what it can be

April 26

For seniors, this time of the year is bittersweet. We are filled with a variety of emotions ranging from happiness to sorrow, relief to joy. Perhaps more than anything else, this is a period for reflection as we transition from students to alumni. With so many big issues in our lives as seniors, why should we care about something as seemingly small as the Tufts Community Union (TCU) presidential election?

The Setonian
News

Freshman admits to racial incident with KSA members

April 26

Freshman Daniel Foster admitted on Friday to making racial slurs toward, threatening to kill and spitting at a group of Korean students, as part of an apology in the framework of an agreement between him and the 13 members of the Korean Students Association (KSA) whom he accosted during the early-morning hours of April 9.

The Setonian
News

Environmental justice and the Green Line

April 26

       "The Green Line is coming!" announced several posters around campus. Groups of students traversed the campus holding posters with lines of poetry on the mixed effects of the Green Line extension on the Somerville community, talking to interested and admitted students as they marched. "The green line is coming, but riders beware," one read. "What works best for you is not always fair."     On Thursday in the campus center, the members of the "Environmental Justice and U.S. Literature" English class turned out in green shirts and formed their own "green line" through the center of Tufts. They began a group social-action project focusing on the intersections of environmental justice in the Tufts community. The central issues were the impending arrival of the Green Line in Somerville and the implications this will have on Tufts and the surrounding areas. On a broader scale, the aim was to raise awareness among Tufts students about what the environmental justice movement is (a political struggle for equality and fairness for all people in terms of environmental hazards and benefits) and how it relates to issues that affect all of us. It is really important that we as Tufts students become familiar with this term, as it holds the most potential for the future of the evolving environmental movement. Increasingly, grassroots organizations are raising awareness about the need to remedy injustices relating to access to our environment and exposure to environmental hazards with adverse health effects.      The Green Line is an environmental justice issue because it raises the possibility of pricing longtime residents out of their homes and increasing T fare; it may fail to incorporate community input in the execution of events which adversely affect disempowered or low-income communities. People are central components of our environment, and they need to be the center of focus when examining the pros and cons of many development proposals. Transportation inequality can also become an issue if the extension mainly benefits Tufts and not the entire community.     The event in the campus center featured baked goods distributed for a suggested donation among posters and pamphlets bearing pros and cons related to the Green Line. The donations will go to a local organization such as Groundwork Somerville, which is involved in community social activism. The main goal was to raise awareness and educate students on the fact that the Green Line is a more complex issue than it appears. Yes, it will add a T stop conveniently right on campus, so what's not to love for Tufts students? However, we need to take the interests of our surrounding community into account, as the reaction in Somerville is mixed. The gentrification and takeover of community land is not a fair price to pay for some.     Many students stopped and expressed interest in learning about the Green Line debates and received pamphlets along with "Green Line" cupcakes for their time. Common questions asked of students were "How do you feel about the Green Line?" "Are you in favor of it?" and "Is it good or bad?" As a class, we abstained from giving our opinions, as we hoped to present the facts from both sides and allow students to form their own opinions. Once they are informed about the effects on the community, both positive and negative, they will not only be more considerate of those with whom we share a community but, like me, become less ignorant about how the Green Line extension can cause so much debate and controversy. This is the case with any development project, but we need to establish a precedent for just social interaction with our community by taking what they have to say about the Green Line into account. Our reputation for active citizenship in social justice issues means that we as Tufts students have an obligation to be well-informed about environmental justice and proposed solutions in our backyard. We can go a long way toward improving our image as an institution if we take a leading role in educating our students on environmental justice; the class action project hoped to begin this dialogue.

The Setonian
News

Let's start putting students first

April 26

    As I've spent this past week campaigning, going to events and meeting students, I've heard again and again that they feel that the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate can't do much of anything. While the TCU Senate can't control tuition bills or build new dorms, it can, and should, be active in improving student life. As a senator for the past two years, that's what I've been doing, and I'm the only candidate who has done something to fix the issues which students care about most: expanding wireless in West and Haskell, improving West, Metcalf and Carmichael common rooms and making Tufts safer. As TCU president, I would continue to put students first by making realistic and tangible progress in the areas that matter most to them.     While I am the only candidate who voted against the Trips Cabin, I don't know if I've made it clear enough exactly why I voted this way.  I always thought the recovered funds had the potential to revolutionize life at Tufts.  That's why Brandon Rattiner and I originally both supported a proposal to use the recovered funds in their entirety as a gift challenge for a new campus center — because it would revolutionize student life.  As the economy collapsed and it soon became clear that Tufts would not be building a new campus center any time soon, I changed my priorities to reflect the new reality and began to look for other ways we could make a similar impact.      Taken in this light, expanding the Loj really won't revolutionize life at Tufts.  It might allow a few more groups to go on retreats each year, but the simple fact is that an off-campus retreat center already exists. What does have the potential to revolutionize life at Tufts is the Senate's recent decision to eliminate most on-campus ticket costs.  This project has the potential to foster a more cohesive community by allowing students to go out and support their friends and experience more of what Tufts has to offer without having to worry about spending $10 or $15 a weekend when increasingly, every dollar makes a big difference.  Unfortunately, there are many questions about how long this experiment will be able to last, and $230,000 could have gone a long way toward making the elimination of ticket costs more sustainable. Quite simply, putting students first means putting all students first.     I think it's important to highlight these differences among the candidates. Elections are about choices, and as voters, you deserve to know the facts. You deserve to know what makes us unique, you deserve specifics over buzzwords and you deserve transparency over secretiveness. That's what I've been doing on this campaign, and it's how I hope to act as president. Throughout this campaign, I've listened to students, answered their e-mails and taken their suggestions. Many of these suggestions have ended up in my platform. I'm not foolish enough to think that I can do this job alone — the help of the student body is my greatest asset.     Election Day is today. By the time you read this, some of you may have already voted, and I applaud that. We pride ourselves on active citizenship and political awareness, and voting, even in a TCU election, is the hallmark of both of those tenets. Whether you support me or not is secondary to voting. Please vote. Please take the time to think about the candidates, read their platforms and make a decision based on substance. You deserve a TCU president that puts students first, but in order for that to happen, you have to make your voices heard.  

The Setonian
News

Candidates face off in debate

April 23

    The three candidates for Tufts Community Union (TCU) president took part in the second and final presidential debate last night, taking advantage of a less formal debate format to speak more frankly about issues that had been brought up two days before in the first debate.     Before an audience in Barnum 104 largely made up of their campaign staff, the presidential nominees fielded pre-submitted questions from undergraduates.     Many of the candidates acknowledged a perceived disconnect between the TCU Senate and the student body, a topic that many of the questions underscore.     Senator Samia Zahran, one of the candidates, said it was important not to dismiss the questions regarding why certain senators decided not to run for reelection this year and instead work on projects outside student government.     "The student body doesn't feel that the Senate is connected to them," said Zahran, a sophomore who did not serve on student government this year, which she says has given her a fresh perspective derived from being outside of an insular Senate. "One of the things that I want to get done is expand the [Senate's] Student Outreach Committee so that it includes students who are not on Senate and brings people to the Senate and brings the Senate to the people."     Senator Chas Morrison, another candidate, said the Senate is an effective force for change on campus, just as students working outside student government could be. But the Senate is specifically charged with voicing student concerns, he explained.     "We're basically a group of students that go out and lobby and get stuff done on behalf of the student body, to the administration," Morrison, a sophomore, said. "So in a sense, we're people with fancy titles, but otherwise, we're students just like you."     Morrison and Senator Brandon Rattiner, also a candidate, addressed the idea of accessibility.     "The best thing that I can do is actually manage people," Rattiner, a junior, said. "The most important thing a leader should be is … relatable and approachable. I'm not going to pretend that I'm some little administrator that has all of these dreams and all of these aspirations and is trying to change the world."     But Morrison took time out of his next response to criticize Rattiner's self-decribed "chill" managing style.     "Brandon keeps attacking me for being a ‘little administrator,'" Morrison said. "I'll take that as a badge of honor."     "Don't you want a TCU president to go out and actually get something done? Do you want a president that is ‘chill' when it comes to advocating for student interests?" he continued, drawing laughs from the crowd.     Meanwhile, the candidate's descriptions of their policies highlighted their different views on campus unity.     Zahran said she hoped to better represent groups at Tufts whose concerns are not usually heard, while Morrison and Rattiner both outlined plans to be more receptive to minority groups. But the latter two saw most of campus disunity as coming from a disconnect between underclassmen and upperclassmen.     Morrison reiterated his goals of bolstering on-campus activities and bringing back school traditions. Rattiner, emphasizing his perspective as a rising senior, said that students want better programming off campus, noting his vote in favor of allocating $230,000 of the recovered funds to build the Trips Cabin at the Tufts Loj and a proposal of his for the Senate to give grants to groups that want to hold off-campus programming.     "It's not about bringing people into Hotung [Café,]" said Rattiner, in an implicit reference to Morrison's plans to better utilize the facility. "It's about bringing people into Boston."     The candidates were also given an opportunity to ask the others one question each.     Rattiner responded to a question from Morrison about not recusing himself from voting on the Trips Cabin by reiterating his previous arguments that he saw the building as benefiting a large portion of the student body, and not just Tufts Mountain Club members.     Zahran used her chance to ask her opponents questions to emphasize her accessibility to underrepresented groups on campus, asking Rattiner how he would lead and represent minorities and women, and Morrison how he would lead and represent people who hold views different than his.     "Truth be told, I don't think these problems can be solved on the Senate floor," Rattiner said. "I think that it's … the Senate's job to figure out ways to empower the communities and figure out ways to enfranchise the people and use our leverage with the administration to make sure the communities can directly help themselves with [my] help."     Morrison asked Zahran if she would have voted for the Trips Cabin, had she been on Senate this year.     "I think I would have voted ‘no' just because of the large amount of money that I feel shouldn't go into one project," she said. "Before I would've voted for anything, I would have asked people. I would have found some way to poll the general population."  

The Setonian
News

Vote to include ballot question, two referenda

April 23

Students voting for presidential candidates on Monday will have the option of voting for two referenda and one "non-binding referendum question" in addition to their preferred presidential candidates.

The Setonian
News

Corrections

April 23

The April 2 article "Two senators consider TCU presidential run" incorrectly stated that junior Brandon Rattiner was an active member of Tufts Mountain Club. Rattiner is not, in fact, a dues-paying member of the group, but he considers himself closely linked to it. The April 13 interview with Jacqueline Novogratz gave the wrong date on which the interview occurred. The interview actually took place on April 9. The April 17 article "Rally goers: We will not be silenced" misstated the name of the student who at the rally chastised University President Lawrence Bacow and his chief of staff, Michael Baenen. The student was not sophomore Jennifer Kim; it was actually junior Jenny Lau. That article also misstated the name of the student who co-authored a Daily op-ed with senior Sofia Nelson. The student was not senior Jen Bailey; it was actually senior Sarah Robbins. Yesterday's article "Rattiner: Focus on the ‘here and now'" misstated Rattiner's major. He is majoring in both political science and philosophy, not just political science.

The Setonian
News

What's so funny

April 23

Associate Professor of Child Development Calvin Gidney yesterday afternoon delivered the second-annual Lerman-Neubauer Lecture, in Cabot Auditorium. Gidney, who spoke about the complex nature of humor in children's cartoons, humor that often exceeds the developmental capacity of its young audience, previously received the Lerman-Neubauer Award for excellence in teaching and advising.

The Setonian
News

Admitted students flock to the Hill during AOH

April 23

April Open House (AOH) will enter its third and final day today, as current high school seniors accepted to Tufts continue to explore the Hill, many trying to make up their minds as to whether they will return as full-time students next year.

The Setonian
News

Humanities' popularity dwindles

April 23

The pursuit of a liberal arts education has been a historically lauded endeavor. The acquisition of knowledge for knowledge's sake and a keen interest in esoteric debate have usually been taken as indicators of students' intellectual ambition and scope, marking them as potential great leaders and civic thinkers. Of late, however, the humanities seem to be entering a bit of a crisis.

The Setonian
News

Rattiner: Focus on the 'here and now'

April 22

Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senator and presidential candidate Brandon Rattiner has focused his campaign on building community within the student body, calling himself a voice for students "here and now."

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