After enduring the ups and downs of the 2012-2013 indoor season, the Tufts delegation to track and field Nationals at North Central University in Naperville, Ill., sought not only to improve upon last years 17th-place finish, but also to win a first-ever national title.
This is the third article in a series focusing on gender issues within different contexts at Tufts.
Four members of the Tufts womens indoor track and field team traveled to North Central College in Naperville, Ill. this weekend for the NCAA Div. III National Championship meet, where they finished in 43rd.
Sunday afternoon, the United States faced a travesty of incomparable magnitude. Well, at least for those who get MLB Networkand follow the World Baseball Classicand care about the results of the glorified exhibition.Team USA found itself six outs away from a loss to Canada, a team that, at that point, had played a total of three players with significant major league experience. A defeat would have eliminated the Americans and dropped them to a last place finish in their pool. Had they finished as cellar dwellers, they would have had to go through qualifying just to participate in the next World Baseball Classic.This isnt the World Cup were talking about at least in that sport were relative novices. This is baseball, Americas pastime, a sport we invented. We call that title of our nations league the World Series, but after losing to Mexico on Friday night, we barely deserve to call it the North American Series.Some might argue that this is far from the best team America can put out there after all, Bryce Harper and Mike Trout were nowhere to be found. But we tried the best team back in the 2006 tournament, and Jeter, Rodriguez, Teixiera, Jones, Damon, Holliday, Griffey and Utley couldnt even get us to the semifinals. But the disappointing results of Team USA call upon a large issue in the overall structure of the tournament and how its run. If the event hopes to ever hold even a tiny fraction of the relevance and importance of international events like the Olympics or the World Cup, a lot of things need to change.First of all, the events timing couldnt be worse. Teams dont want their players risking their bodies during spring training, even if its for their country. Teixieras wrist injury, the result of World Baseball Classic preparation, wont do anything to alleviate the fears of owners. The injury risk also leads to inane situations, like knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, who was limited by rule to 65 pitches on Friday, though he could easily throw 200 in a single game.Instead, the tournament should follow the lead of the World Cup and run closer to the end of the previous season than the beginning of the next. Play it in December, somewhere warm and tropical that players can write off as a vacation. The injury risks will be dampened, as players would have plenty of time to heal, and owners couldnt complain about it taking up valuable spring training time, as the late George Steinbrenner did back in 2006.Once its having less effect on the regular season, lets bump it up to every two years instead of every four. The World Cup works in a quadrennial system because there is plenty of other international soccer, but with baseball no longer in the Olympics, the World Baseball Classic is the only game in town. While the World Cup builds anticipation through four years, the Classic gets forgotten by the time the cycle has completed.Finally, the format needs an overhaul. Get rid of the small pool system; baseball isnt meant to be separated by the results of a three-game, round robin. Either adopt the Olympics old system of larger pools, or get some three-game series going. Either way will allow for more eye-drawing matchups, whether clashes of elite teams or intense rubber games. It will also take away the feeling that, with such a small game sample size, advancing and winning are simply luck.According to a University of Michigan study, 1.4 million Americans tuned in for the 2006 edition of the World Baseball Classic. But I have to imagine that as the novelty has worn off, the high ratings have too. Ill be watching Team USA the rest of the way but if they want people to join me, its time for baseball to enhance its international game.--Ethan Sturm is a senior who is majoring in biopsyschology. He can be reached at Ethan.Sturm@tufts.edu or @esturm90.
The No. 5 Jumbos opened the 2013 season with a thud Saturday, falling 109 to Hamilton College at home. The Continentals, who finished 55 in their first season in the NESCAC last year, used a fourgoal second period and a 5228 advantage in shots to stifle a Tufts squad missing 27 players who were suspended in January for two games after a thirdparty investigation found that they had behaved inappropriately at a volleyball game in September.
According to the U.S. News and World Report, there are 1.1 million physically disabled undergraduate college students in the United States, comprising 5.9 percent of the total population of undergrads. While the numbers at Tufts are proportionally much smaller, the campus physically and from an educational standpoint poses a number of challenges for students with disabilities that they and the university work to overcome.
Here we are in the second week of March, which can only mean one thing: March Madness is upon us. Its the season that sports fans look forward to all year. Casual and avid fans sit side by side watching to see if this is the year where the No. 16 seed will upset the No. 1. They fill out their brackets with care, with the exception of the one friend who always puts all four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four every year.
When Tufts took on Amherst Friday night in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, the game followed a script that had been written many times before.
A local policewoman is driving along one of the main roads in Medford and, as she pulls up to the intersection, comes across a group of youngsters slathering paint onto the electrical switchbox at the corner. The policewoman pulls her car over to the curb, gets out and begins walking towards the group. As a few of the kids notice the nearing authority figure, they quickly blurt out, Were allowed to do this, we swear! The officer, realizing the groups anxiety, just as quickly replies, No, I know! I just want to know how you guys signed up.
Dear campus,As all Tufts students will have noticed by now, we are in the midst of Students for Justice in Palestines second annual Israeli Apartheid Week. This week is marked by various events and speakers and aims to make the case that Israel is an apartheid state.We, the board and members of Friends of Israel, firmly believe that the Palestinian narrative is extremely important. Indeed, the pursuit of a peaceful two-state solution will necessarily have to engage with and address many of the concerns SJP is raising.However, we must emphatically assert that Israel is not an apartheid state. Briefly put, Arab-Israelis have the same opportunities as Jewish Israelis. They serve as members of Knesset (the Israeli parliament), as Supreme Court judges and as prominent cabinet members. The Palestinians within the West Bank, on the other hand, are not Israeli citizens, nor do they wish to be they have their own national movement, government and civil structures in place. Any unfortunate consequences of Israels legitimate pursuit of security, regrettable as they may be, by definition do not indicate an apartheid system.But most importantly, the realities of Israel are far too complex to be addressed in one week of programming, much less in a single op-ed.Furthermore, if the Islamophobic and generally repugnant Islamic Apartheid Week advertisement and the justified outcry it elicited can teach us anything, it is that indiscriminately throwing around the term apartheid a term so mired in powerful, hateful emotions is simply hurtful and attempts to vilify a supposed enemy, rather than promote constructive dialogue.Labeling Israel as an Apartheid state does not lead to higher discourse it prevents it. We at Tufts owe it to ourselves to have a serious conversation about the Israeli-Palestinian issue and not just devolve into another bout of op-ed wars and name-calling.So join us in attending SJPs events. Listen to their speakers, talk to their members hear their side of the story. But also know that it is just that: one side of an issue far greater than one week could ever truly do justice. Look past the rhetoric and give this divisive issue the respect it deserves.We would also hope you come to our events, stop by our meetings, hear our take on the matter. FOI is first and foremost a resource to our campus for anyone who wants to discuss matters relating to Israel. We are open to all conversation, provided that it comes from a genuine desire for understanding, not further antagonism.There is enough conflict surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian issue; let us not add to it.We hope that you all have a meaningful week.--Itai Thaler is a junior majoring in English and is the political chair of Tufts Friends of Israel (FOI). Shira Strauss is a junior majoring in biology and is a member of FOI. Ayal Pierce is a sophomore majoring in computer science and is co-president of FOI. Aliza Shapiro is a sophomore who has yet to declare a major and is co-president of FOI. Friends of Israel can be contacted at TuftsFOI@gmail.com.
The expectations for last years womens lacrosse team were high. They returned eight seniors to their starting lineup after advancing to the semifinals of the NESCAC tournament, and looked poised for another successful run. The experience was there, yet the results did not come.
Soccer is inherently biased towards the big, rich and successful teams. There is no semblance of a salary cap, so the rich stay rich, and the poor can only hope for a very moderate rise. That is, unless a team is purchased by someone willing to make an enormous investment.
Womens swimming lived up to the high expectations set by last years squad and the years before them by placing third in NESCACs and sending a relay squad to the NCAA Championships as they have done in past years.
Going into the season, the 20122013 mens swimming and diving team was, on paper, a curiosity. The Jumbos were returning national champion diver junior Johann Schmidt and had a strong group of junior swimmers, but it looked like most of the other spots would go to a group of talentedbutuntested freshmen.
As NESCAC lacrosse play opens up this weekend, here is a quick guide to whos gone, whos back, and who the Jumbos will have to watch in Div. III lacrosses most competitive conference.
Women's squash co?captain Jessica Rubine represented Tufts at the 2013 CSA individual championships on Friday at Trinity College, competing in the Holleran (B) division to close out the Jumbos' season.
With the Tufts Men's Track and Field athletes granted one final opportunity to springboard to nationals, the Jumbos split up this past weekend in the hope of improving everyone's chances of qualification. The ECAC Division III Championships at the Armory in New York City started off the pressure?filled weekend on Friday, followed on Saturday by the Last Chance Meet held in the Gantcher Center at Tufts.
Tufts freshman AdityaAdvani concluded the men's squash season this weekend at Trinity College, representing the Jumbos in the College Squash Association Individual Champions this past weekend at Trinity College.
Tufts women's track and field hosted the Last Chance Meet on Saturday at the Gantcher Center for athletes attempting to secure a spot at the NCAA Division III National Championships next weekend.
