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VOLUME LVI, NUMBER 60

THE TUFTS DAILY Thursday, December 4, 2008
Where You
Read It First
Est. 1980

TUFTSDAILY.COM

Students weigh ASL classes may

in on donations, be counted toward
services in survey required studies
by Carter Rogers by Alexandra Bogus
Contributing Writer Daily Editorial Board

Seniors say they are more willing A committee of students, professors

to donate to Tufts than alumni giving
statistics might imply, and students
strongly support expanding Health
Service’s hours, according to the Tufts
Community Union Senate’s semesterly
survey.
The Senate released the results of
this semester’s survey to the Daily on
Sunday. “The survey is really important
to us. It’s a great way to solicit feed-
back on our projects,” TCU President
Duncan Pickard said.
The Senate e-mailed the survey to the
undergraduate student body on Nov. 12
and administrators has voted to send a
proposal to the Arts and Sciences fac-
ulty recommending that American Sign
Language (ASL) classes be permitted to
fulfill part one of the undergraduate lan-
guage requirement.
Biology Professor Francie Chew, the
Jo Duara/Tufts Daily
chair of the Curricula Committee, said
Sophomore Faris Islam spoke at yesterday’s rally for the victims of the terrorist attacks that the college’s faculty members will dis-
in Mumbai. cuss and vote on the measure during their
meeting on Dec. 10, when they will also
Community unites to voice consider an array of other agenda items
regarding curriculum changes.
The Curricula Committee is comprised

support for Mumbai victims

and gave the community until Nov.
23 to respond. All told, 1579 students
participated for a total response rate
of 31.4 percent. Dan Pasternack, the
Senate’s Student Outreach Committee
co-chair, said this was “definitely a
good turnout.”
The survey’s topics ranged from pos-
sible new initiatives such as a com-
munal bicycle program to roommate
compatibility and satisfaction with the
campus center.
The Senate also used the survey to
collect a vote on which two area restau-
rants should be added to the Merchants
on Points (MOPs) system, which allows
students to pay for delivery from local
eateries using JumboCash. The Senate
is expected to release the results of that
question today.
Several questions asked if students
thought adjustments to services and
operating hours would benefit them.
One asked if students felt that keeping
Health Service open around the clock
would “improve personal health and
safety at Tufts.”
Sixty percent of respondents said
yes, while 11.6 percent said no and
28.4 percent were not sure. Currently,
Health Service is open from 8 a.m.
by Gillian Javetski
Daily Editorial Board
Teachers, students and admin-
istrators gathered on the Tisch
Library patio yesterday to remem-
ber the nearly 200 people who lost
their lives in the terrorist attacks in
Mumbai, India, last week.
The South Asian Political Action
Committee (SAPAC) organized the
noontime gathering, which attract-
ed about 100 people at its height.
“By now, I’m sure that you have
all heard of all of the stories of sad-
ness and hope that these attacks
have brought,” said SAPAC Co-Chair
Faris Islam, a sophomore, in open-
ing the hour-long rally.
Islam encouraged those in atten-
dance to write messages of support
in a solidarity scrapbook that will
be sent to the Indian Embassy in
New York.
In her remarks, History Professor
Ayesha Jalal discouraged students
from succumbing to the widespread
fear such violence can trigger.
“The events in Mumbai have left
a staggering effect on our psyches,
on the region and on the world at
large,” said Jalal, the director of
Tufts’ Center for South Asian and
Indian Ocean Studies. “We are all
see MUMBAI, page 2
SLIDESHOW @
tuftsdaily.com
For a slideshow of photos
from the event, visit our
Web site.
of eight voting faculty members, three vot-
ing students and three non-voting faculty
members. All proposed changes to Tufts’
curriculum are referred to the committee
for approval before being sent to the fac-
ulty for a final decision.
On Nov. 12, the committee held a
meeting at which representatives from
the departments of child development,
romance languages and German, Russian
and Asian Languages and Literature
(GRALL) weighed in on the proposal. The
committee voted to support it a week
later, but Chew asked to keep the vote tally
private.
Faculty members in the Department of
Child Development suggested last March
that the committee consider allowing ASL
to fulfill the language requirement. Child
Development Lecturer Terrell Clark resub-
mitted a revised version to the committee
in September.
“I have no idea why anyone would
oppose it,” Clark said.
Tufts currently offers three ASL courses.
They can be counted toward part two
of the language requirement, which can
be filled with either language or culture
courses. Students can only fulfill part one
by taking three classes in one particular
foreign language.

see SURVEY, page 2 see ASL, page 2

Richardson calls commerce ‘the only path’ to growth as Obama nominates him for cabinet post
by Jeremy White
Daily Editorial Board
President-elect Barack Obama
yesterday nominated Gov. Bill
Richardson (D-N.M.), a Tufts
alum, to become secretary of
commerce, which would make
him a top economic manager
and international envoy.
“The catchphrases of
[Obama’s] economic plan –
investment, public-private
partnerships, green jobs, tech-
nology, broadband, climate
change and research – that is
the Department of Commerce,”
Richardson (A ’70, F ’71) said
at the press conference where
the president-elect announced
the nomination. “Boosting
commerce between states and
nations is not just a path to sol-
MCT vency and growth; it’s the only
For part of the campaign, Bill Richardson and Barack Obama were adversar- path.”
ies. They are pictured here during one of the debates. Before becoming governor,
Richardson served as a U.S. con-
gressman and in then-President
Bill Clinton’s administration as
the country’s ambassador to the
United Nations and as energy
secretary.
Richardson initially sought the
Democratic presidential nomi-
nation, but he dropped out in
January and ultimately backed
Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton
(D-N.Y.). The endorsement drew
extensive coverage because
Richardson chose Obama
despite his role in the Clinton
administration. Richardson and
Sen. Clinton, whom Obama has
nominated to be secretary of
state, are set to serve together
on the cabinet.
The New Mexico governor is
the latest addition to an eco-
nomic team that will be respon-
sible for weathering one of the
most severe fiscal crises of the
past century.
Richardson’s
résumé
Below are the highlights of
Bill Richardson’s wide-ranging
career in public service:
Chair of Democratic
Governor’s Association, 2004-
present
Governor of New Mexico,
2003-present
Chair of 2004 Democratic
National Convention
Secretary of Energy, 1998-
2001
U.S. Ambassador to United
Nations, 1997-1998
“Earlier this week, we learned
that the U.S. economy has been
see RICHARDSON, page 2

Inside this issue Today’s Sections

The Daily takes a look
at student-made films Tufts alums play flag News 1 Op-Ed 11
aimed at effecting social football in the nation’s Features 3 Comics 13
change. capital. Weekender 5 Sports 15
Editorial | Letters 10 Classifieds 19
see FEATURES, page 3 see SPORTS, page 15
2 The Tufts Daily News Thursday, December 4, 2008

Most students would prefer to see Health Service operate around the clock
SURVEY
continued from page 1
to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday
with more limited hours on Friday,
Saturday, as well as the second and
fourth Thursdays of the month. It is not
open on Sundays.
As to the whether the survey results
could lead the university to operate
Health Service on a 24-hour basis,
Pickard said the student response is
only one component.
“The other is looking at the level of
service and the cost effectiveness of
running the service for 24 hours. We’re
using results from the survey and other
information. We’re looking at opportu-
nities working with Health Service to
expand the resources that they offer
students,” he said.
According to Pasternack, questions
regarding facilities and services gain
significant importance if an over-
whelming majority materializes. “We’d
have this [data] to go to members of the
administration and say, ‘The students
really want this,’” he said.
A question posed only to seniors
sought to determine soon-to-be gradu-
ates’ likelihood to donate to Tufts in the
future. Pickard thought this question
was a good method of gauging student
satisfaction with the university.
On a scale of one to five, with five
meaning “very likely” to donate to Tufts
in the future, 14.6 percent responded
with a five and 25.9 percent responded
with a four. Tufts’ alumni giving rate in
fiscal year 2007 was 24.3 percent.
Director of Advancement
Communications and Donor Relations
Christine Sanni said that if those who
called themselves likely contributors
become regular donors, and if a good
deal of those who checked “three” do
the same, she “would be thrilled about
that number.”
As to why the survey results might
differ from actual donation statistics,
Sanni said that not all donors give
every year, noting that 50 percent of
undergraduate alumni have made a
donation to Tufts’ current capital cam-
paign, Beyond Boundaries.
Sanni added that the university Jordyn Wolfand/Tufts Daily
would like to address “the fact that The Senate, shown here at one of its weekly meetings, administered a survey last month that
some donors opt in, but then opt out” it will refer to in making decisions and recommendations.
from year to year.
She also noted that “competition for “It isn’t scientific, so there’s inevitably He added, “To say that a majority of
philanthropic dollars has increased in going to be questions that don’t give the students do feel this way, or some-
recent years.” the exact percentages. To say that [a thing where there are a few questions
Pasternack said the survey was rela- very specific percentage] of the student that have 75 percent of the students
tively accurate, but not exact. “I think body [agrees] would be something you thinking this way — something like
[the survey] is fairly accurate,” he said. wouldn’t want to do with the results.” that would be fairly accurate.”

Richardson to combine energy and foreign policy experience in new post

richardson
continued from page 1
in recession since December of
2007 and that our manufactur-
ing output is at a 26-year low
– two stark reminders of the
magnitude of the challenges we
face,” Obama said yesterday.
The secretary of commerce’s
primary role is to advance
domestic businesses while
encouraging the expansion of
American enterprises abroad.
But Economics Lecturer
Christopher McHugh said
the position would not afford
Richardson much leverage in
effecting sweeping changes in
economic policy.
“It’s not really a macro policy
type of department,” McHugh
said. “It’s not really a top role
when it comes to dealing with
economy.”
He added, “Historically, it’s
more of a business planning
type of thing. It’s not a trouble-
shooter’s type of role.”
McHugh said the secretary of
the treasury, chairman of the
Federal Reserve and members
of the president’s Council of
Economic Advisors carry more
clout and ability to influence
change.
Sources listed Richardson
as a contender to become sec-
retary of state before Obama
named Clinton earlier this week.
McHugh said he was surprised
Richardson had received what
the lecturer called a relatively
inconsequential role, given his
record as a stalwart ally of the
Obama campaign.
“I thought he was a pretty
big player,” McHugh said. “From
governor of New Mexico to sec-
retary of commerce is sort of a
lateral move.”
McHugh added, “I think he’s
a good general politician. I’m
surprised he took it.”
Tufts Democrats President
Shana Hurley said that
Richardson should be able to
draw on his past experience as
a diplomat and as secretary of
energy to promote new indus-
tries while forging alliances with
foreign leaders.
“He’ll be at the intersection of
the two [past] positions,” Hurley
said. “We’re going to have to be
dealing with the international
community a lot with this eco-
nomic crisis, and a goal of the
Obama administration has been
to create a lot of green jobs.”
Although Hurley, a junior,
acknowledged the position’s
limited role, she suggested that
Richardson’s vision and exten-
sive experience could help him
expand the scope of the com-
merce secretary’s powers.
“I think it’s fair to say with
any position in any administra-
tion that it’s about the individ-
ual,” she said. “If you have an
extremely qualified and skilled
individual, they will take advan-
tage of the opportunity.”
Referring to Richardson as the
“business sector’s emissary to
the rest of the world,” Hurley
said that he will work to “encour-
age foreign direct investment in
the U.S. and their companies.”
She added, “His job is to rep-
resent U.S. businesses to the rest
of the world, and based on his
competence and experience, I
think he’ll be able to do this bet-
ter than anyone else.”

Speakers want rational, united response
MUMBAI
continued from page 1
caught in this wave of terror, and
the people of Mumbai have been the
most recent victims.”
In this spirit, Jalal said that people
and governments must remain open
to dialogue with one another.
“Terror seeks to close debate, and
we need to open debate,” she said. “If
we lose sight of that, then we help the
terrorists succeed.”
Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, the executive
director of Tufts Hillel, agreed with
Jalal. He urged attendees to remain
unified in condemning the assail-
ants.
“The effect of the violence in
Mumbai against citizens, foreign-
ers and the Chabad Center are dev-
astating in their randomness and
specificness,” Summit said. “The
sooner that we learn that coming
together is the force that will keep
terrorism from succeeding — that’s
when we can begin to set aside
this senseless, senseless violence.”
Summit closed his remarks by read-
ing a prayer about bombings by an
Israeli author.
Institute for Global Leadership
Director Sherman Teichman called
on students to be vigilant and open-
minded in formulating the proper
response to the attacks.
“The response that is necessary
today is a common humanity, an
incessant militancy to not yield to
this kind of attack,” Teichman said.
“It is now time to heal, but we have to
be provocative in our thinking — how
to find causality, how to find a mea-
sure of response, how to deny this on
every level.
“We need to prevent the instinctual
recourse to vengeance and violence,”
he continued. “We need to link our
hearts and heads into a common
humanity, and recognize that this is
a common problem. Terror aims too
close; it is the most claustrophobic
thing I know.”
A moment of shared silence fol-
lowed Teichman’s speech. Assistant
History Professor Kris Manjapra then
urged students to think about their
obligations in light of the attacks.
“Right now we have to mourn,
and I really feel that when we are
finished mourning, we also have to
think about what our calling is in this
time,” he said. “We are called to do
something in this time.”
The Chabad House’s Chanie Tzvi
talked about the terrorist attack on
a Chabad House in Mumbai, which
killed Rabbi Gavriel Holzberg and his
wife Rivka.
“The Chabad House in Mumbai is
a place where one is welcome with
unconditional love and respect, but
was made into a direct target,” Tzvi
said. “The tears flow, the emotions are
raw and the pain is deep, but we must
not let the pain consume us.”
Sophomore Radhika Saraf spoke
about her experience as a resident of
Mumbai with direct connections to
the victims.
“It hit our families, it hit our
friends and it hit every person in the
city,” Saraf said. “These terrorists
came into our cities and just opened
fire.”
Sophomore and SAPAC member
Ashish Malhotra was heartened by
the high turnout and what it demon-
strates about sympathy on campus
for the victims of the attacks.
“I thought that it went really well,”
he told the Daily. “It was nice to see
that a lot of people showed up to
show their solidarity, which is exactly
what SAPAC was hoping for.”
Proponents doubt that support would
draw students away from other languages
ASL
continued from page 1
ASL was first offered in the Experimental
College in the 1970s, according to Clark. It
consistently enjoyed student interest and
transitioned into the child development
department. Eventually, the department
began to offer three course levels of ASL.
“Once there were three levels, it made
logical sense that students use it as their
language requirement,” Clark said.
Senior Toby Bonthrone, a Tufts
Community Union (TCU) senator who sits
on the Curricula Committee, said he was
in favor of adding sign language to part
one of the requirement. “ASL is undisput-
edly a language and is accepted as such
because it is [already] part of part two,” he
said.
Bonthrone said that one potential point
of dispute is whether ASL is a foreign lan-
guage, and he argued that it is.
“Foreign doesn’t have to be territory-
based. It doesn’t have to be abroad,” he
said. “The deaf culture has been quite
clearly identified as a culture in its own
right … You can’t pick and choose which
cultures you don’t accept.”
Chew, however, said that ASL’s western
influence may deter some from support-
ing the measure as a foreign language.
“It is used almost exclusively in the
U.S. and Canada. The other languages for
which we give foreign-language credit in
part one are languages that aren’t primar-
ily spoken in the U.S. and Canada,” she
said.
Bonthrone also said that “political con-
cerns” were motivating some to oppose
the measure. He said that faculty mem-
bers in foreign-language departments may
believe that enabling ASL to fulfill part one
would deplete enrollment in other lan-
guages.
Chew did not believe that enrollment
would be a large concern among language
departments. The ASL courses have typi-
cally been ranked as high-demand classes
and have been capped at a small number
of students. The introductory-level ASL
class is capped at 22 students, Clark said.
Chew added that there were no plans
to increase the ASL course offerings if the
language was added to part one of the
requirement. “Child Development reports
it has no plans or budget capability to
expand ASL offerings, so that is not going
to happen, and certainly not in this bud-
get climate,” she said.
Both Professor Hosea Hirata, chair
of GRALL, and Professor Jose Antonio
Mazzotti, chair of the Department of
Romance Languages, declined to comment
due to ongoing talks with the Curricula
Committee, Dean of Undergraduate
Education James Glaser and the
Department of Child Development.
Neither Chew nor Bonthrone believes
that adding ASL to part one would draw a
significant number of students who would
not otherwise have taken the course away
from other languages.
Chew said the Department of Child
Development “is not being besieged at
this point ... I don’t imagine that someone
who’s majoring in [international relations]
would have any particular interest in tak-
ing ASL.”
Bonthrone added that allowing ASL to
fulfill part one of the requirement would
accommodate students who are looking
into more domestic fields.
“Some faculty pointed out that this
whole international focus can at times be
a bit excessive,” he said. “Some people are
more interested in domestic careers. ASL
is quite relevant to doctors, … social work-
ers, any kind of deaf activists.”

Declining financial resources make for
difficult decisions in U.S. higher education
Cuts are being made as U.S. system slips in international competitiveness
by Jessica Bidgood
Daily Editorial Board
The National Center for Public Policy
and Higher Education (NCPPHE)
released its annual Measuring Up report
yesterday, which examines the strength
and progress the U.S. system of higher
education relative to the systems of thirty
democratic countries across the world.
Using indicators including overall enroll-
ment and the percentage of young adults
holding associates degrees or higher, the
study concluded that the United States
has slipped in overall competitiveness
with international systems.
“Despite our historical successes in
higher education, the preeminence of
many of our colleges and universities
and some examples of improvement
in this decade, our higher education
performance is not commensurate with
the current needs of our society and
our economy,” said James B. Hunt, Jr.,
the chairman of the NCPPHE’s Board of
Directors, in a statement released along-
side the report.
The findings of the report are a sober-
ing addition to the host of worries about
the U.S. higher education system, includ-
ing its high costs and disparities in access.
As the economy continues to behave
unpredictably and schools both private
and public face declining resources, one
state university system is showing signs
of the kind of strain that may weaken the
ability of individual systems to close the
gaps indicated by the report.
Two weeks ago, the University of
California system announced that it
Student Telefund employees call Tufts associates in order to raise money for the university.
Beyond the call of duty: Telefund employee
raises record $545,000 over four-year career
by Meghan Pesch
Daily Editorial Board
While most students opt to secure on-
campus jobs behind the sandwich counter
of Hodgdon, beyond the kitchen doors of
Dewick or amidst a sea of filing cabinets in
Dowling, a select few choose to work in the
depths of Eaton at the Tufts Telefund call-
ing center, where employees blast out calls
to associates of Tufts in hopes of raising
money for the university.
One such Tufts student, senior Cory
Blodgett, is currently leading the pack of
fundraising callers. In his almost four-year
career at Tufts, Bodgett has raised a record-
setting $545,000.
Blodgett started at the Telefund shortly
into his first year on the Hill through a
Features
The University of California system will be cutting enrollment in light of the financial crisis.
would be cutting enrollment by 10,000
students in light of budgetary prob-
lems. A press release accompanying the
announcement explained that a recent
$66 million dollar mid-year funding cut,
connection with a classmate in his Spanish
course.
“My current boss was in my Spanish
class,” Blodgett said. “In our introductions,
he said that he worked at the Telefund, and
if anyone needed a job, they should talk to
him, so I did.”
Because his fundraising efforts have
been so successful, Blodgett now works
three to four nights a week at the call-
ing center as one of four supervisors who
advise the newer callers on how to make an
effective pitch. When placing calls, Blodgett
said that the key is to be as personable as
possible and to get to know the people in
the short amount of time before they hang
up.
“I tell people to try and communicate
with the person on the other end — don’t
tuftsdaily.com
MCT
coming after a $33 million dollar cut over
the summer, had forced the system to
impose an enrollment cap of 343,000 stu-
see HIGHER EDUCATION, page 4
MEREDITH kLEIN/tUFTS dAILY
sound like a robot and try to make a friend
in two minutes,” he said. “It’s a lot harder
for them to hang up on someone like
that.”
Although Blodgett has raised an impres-
sive amount for the school, there are many
others Telefund callers who follow close
behind. Senior Eleanor Gonzales has
the second-highest dollar amount with
$520,000, and Blodgett said that there are
others, like seniors Chris Maxwell and
Steven Elsesser, who have dedicated com-
parable lengths of time and are well within
the ballpark.
“The staff as a whole is a group of dedi-
cated people who work hard to help the
school,” he said. “We have raised millions
see TELEFUND, page 4
3
Michael Sherry | Political Animal
What comes
next?
F
or all the drama and excitement that
has surrounded this year-and-a-half-
long extravaganza of a presiden-
tial race, most of it remained in the
American political system’s “comfort zone”
— that is, for the most part, we were still deal-
ing with a recognizable, normal American
national election.
Of course, like any juicy political episode,
there were shocks, twists and turns: the
Republican intra-party dispute that pitted
no fewer than five segments of the party
against each other in a battle royale for the
nomination; the epic, marathon-level test
of endurance between Hillary Clinton and
Barack Obama for their party’s nod in a con-
test which came down to a mere handful of
votes out of 36 million cast; and the meteoric
rise of Sarah Palin to national prominence
and punchline. While unique and fascinat-
ing, these types of events can happen in any
standard American election.
The two truly standout, unprecedented
developments that the 2008 election brought
us are the nomination and then election of
the first black president in American his-
tory (which you can now celebrate by buying
crappy plastic plates from late-night info-
mercials) and the success of his online small-
donor army of contributors, which will fun-
damentally alter the way campaigns are run
and funded from now on. Those are the two
lasting, permanent changes to the American
political landscape post-2008.
However — and I hope I’m not getting too
bogged down in details here — even these
developments aren’t revolutionary, change-
the-way-America-operates type earthquakes.
We didn’t have a third-party candidate sud-
denly win the presidency. We didn’t abolish the
Electoral College. We didn’t have one candi-
date claim authority over the states that voted
for him or incite riots in the street against his
opponent. The two “big deals” I mentioned
above are real modifications of the existing
system but not a complete overhaul.
Four years from now, the Republicans and
the Democrats will face off again, and no mat-
ter who runs against whom or how popular
the Obama administration is, each party will
probably get at least 45 percent of the vote.
All of this is a long way of pointing out that
we are not in Bizarro World, politically speak-
ing. The basic laws of political physics still
apply.
Where we’re truly in uncharted, Lewis-
and-Clark, “here be dragons” territory is with
governance. Nobody really knows what on
earth the Obama administration will do or
how it will perform. Part of this is because no
Democrat has had a majority of the popular
vote and majorities in Congress since LBJ in
1964, and prior to him, FDR in 1932. Nobody
knows what a truly unfettered Democratic
administration looks like because the last
time Democrats had a truly free hand in
Washington, some new band from England
called the Beatles was making a name for
itself.
Yes, we’ve all heard the plans and prom-
ises on the campaign trail. But no policy plan
survives first contact with Congress (you try
coming up with a policy that 535 people —
all of whom have their own ideas, quirks and
constituencies — agree on), public opinion
(Bill Clinton’s early defeat on removing the
ban on homosexuals in the military was a
sharp lesson for him) and random events.
This will be the first time in over 40 years
that the modern Democratic Party will have
a chance to show the country what it can
do. Obama, his decisions and his successes
and failures may very well have an effect on
this country far beyond the next four to eight
years.
After three semesters, this will be my final
column. Thanks for reading — I hope you’ve
enjoyed reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed
writing it.
Michael Sherry is a senior majoring in
political science. He can be reached at
Michael.Sherry@tufts.edu.
4 The Tufts Daily Features Thursday, December 4, 2008

Blodgett extends fundraising Tufts plans to maintain current enrollment rate

expertise beyond Tufts Telefund
telefund
continued from page 3
of dollars for Tufts because every
caller — and every donor — makes
a difference.”
Blodgett also said that, along with
the dedicated staff, he enjoys the
position due to the people he gets to
interact with over the phone.
“The staff as a whole
is a group of dedicated
people who work hard
to help the school. We
have raised millions
of dollars for Tufts
because every caller
— and every donor —
makes a difference.”
Cory Blodgett
senior
“My favorite part is talking to
people. You get to talk to every-
one from different geographic,
different ethnic, different socio-
economic backgrounds, and you
learn to talk to people when they
are happy and when they are
angry,” he said. “You get to talk to
them and set [donations] up the
way they would like it to be, and
sometimes you’ll just get to meet
a nice person.”
The Tufts Telefund is a part
of the university’s annual fund,
which goes toward anything
from research and faculty costs
to technology and infrastructure
enhancements. It also supple-
ments financial aid and tuition,
which makes it increasingly
important given the pressing eco-
nomic downturn. In the midst of
the financial crisis, Blodgett said
that there has not been much of
a difference in generosity, but the
callers have adjusted their atti-
tudes.
“We haven’t seen a noticeable
decrease in the percentage of peo-
ple who are showing their support
to Tufts,” he said. “Obviously, with
the economy the way it is, we want
to show as much empathy as we
can and be as understanding as
possible.”
Outside of academics and the
Telefund, Blodgett employs his
fundraising expertise to assist other
organizations as well. After his
friend created a non-profit foun-
dation called Heal the Children,
which is currently in the process of
raising money to build a school in
Africa, she enlisted his help.
“[My friend] knew I worked
at the Telefund and had experi-
ence with that sort of thing, so
she asked me to help. We tried to
generate a calling list, but no one
has any connection to the cause,
so it’s much more difficult to get
their attention,” he said. “The one
thing about the Tufts Telefund is
that everyone we call is connected
to Tufts in some way, so it is easier
to catch their interest.”
While raising money currently
occupies a large portion of his time,
he is doubtful that his fundraising
efforts will transfer to a career post-
college, though he did not immedi-
ately rule out the prospect.
“I’ve considered careers in
advancement,” he said. “But I’m
double majoring in biology and
psychology. So right now my future
looks like grad school or becoming
a physician’s assistant.”
higher education
continued from page 3
dents for the fall 2009 semester.
Associate professor of eco-
nomics David Garman, whose
field of expertise is the eco-
nomics of higher education,
explained that this action is
rooted in a simple problem that
all colleges face.
“Tuition does not cover
expenses, and so colleges lose
money if it is not made up
somehow,” Garman said. “For
state colleges and universities,
that money has to be made up
by subsidies from the state.”
Garman said that the
University of California system’s
announcement is a final and
extreme step after a long series
of budget cuts.
“Over the past 20 years, most
states have cut subsidies to col-
leges and universities. There’s
not a lot of slack in adjusting
to new budgets,” said Garman,
indicating that the cuts are not
a direct response to any single
cut or circumstance, like the
current economic crises.
Given declining resources,
the system faced a tradeoff
between education quantity
and quality.
“At some point, the admin-
istration has to draw a line in
the sand and say that if we
keep accepting students with-
out adequate resources, we’re
going to be doing a poor job of
educating all of our students,”
Garman said.
Dean of Admissions Lee
Coffin is concerned that systems
like that of California could be
entering an unfortunate cycle.
“Many families will explore
state universities as a more
affordable option during the
down economy, but those
options may become more lim-
ited as a result of the same eco-
nomic conditions,” he said.
Garman said that schools
have several options when
responding to budget cuts,
including increasing class sizes,
cutting learning resources and
degrading the quality of stu-
dents’ education. “At some
point, they have to ask if they
are delivering what they’ve
promised to deliver.”
Garman believes that the
enrollment cut is a short-term
response to a political prob-
lem.
“I think the administration
[that] considered this and the
president who proposed it are
trying to take a political stand
in defense of higher education,”
he said.
“Many families will
explore state universi-
ties as a more afford-
able option during
the down economy,
but those options may
become more limited
as a result of the same
economic conditions.”
Lee Coffin
dean of admissions
According to Garman, though,
the reality of the system’s deci-
sion is that it may have sacri-
ficed enrollment while keeping
other programs, like athletics
and graduate studies, afloat.
“[Athletics and graduate stud-
ies] are all big, expensive pro-
grams, and I’d like to see more
debate and discussion about
what academic priorities are.”
Garman said that while any
state facing cuts in education
budgets may find itself having
to take steps similar to those
taken in California, private
colleges face a different set of
financial issues.
“Private schools that rely
heavily on endowments are
going to experience a drop in
revenues,” Garman said. “But
since private schools have
experienced growing endow-
ments over the past 10 years,
they’re not as starved as public
colleges and universities are. It’s
possible that they can ride this
out.”
Coffin said that Tufts will not
be forced to change enrollment
for the 2009-2010 academic
year.
“As usual, we are planning to
enroll a freshman class of 1,275
to 1,300, as well as 50 transfer
students, for the fall of 2009,” he
said, adding that the number of
transfer students will be adjust-
ed according to the number of
returning upperclassmen.
Garman said that the fact that
Tufts’ budget is based largely on
tuition funds, which will not
fluctuate as endowments or
state budgets have, will lend
some stability to Tufts as it navi-
gates the financial crisis.
While enrollment at Tufts will
remain stable, Garman says that
declining resources, both as a
result of the recent economic
crisis and of the long term pub-
lic funding decline, will force all
colleges and universities to take
a hard look at the best use of
their resources.
“This is a critical juncture
for colleges and universities to
examine their priorities,” he
said.

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Weekender Feature
Student films seek to inspire change in society
by Catherine Scott and Grant Beighley
Daily Editorial Board
Recognized on campus as home to class-
es outside the realm of the typical col-
lege experience, the Experimental College
is known for its integration of media into
the classroom, making it a vital resource
for aspiring journalists and filmmakers
at Tufts. One of the most successful and
innovative courses is Producing Films for
Social Change, which for the last three
years has been taught by documentary
filmmaker and producer Margaret Lazarus
with the help of ExCollege Lecturer Don
Schechter. Though listed as an ExCollege
class, Producing Films for Social Change
represents a collaborative effort between
the Communications and Media Studies
Program and the Tisch College’s Media and
Public Service Program.
The class enables students to produce
short films that are all centered on an issue
of social relevance. This year, the class will
screen four films — “Falling Through the
Cracks: Mapendo and Africa’s Forgotten
Refugees,” “Honkumentary: No Noise is
Illegal,” “Tourette’s: What Makes You Tic”
and “The Art of Delinquency.”
Before applying for her teaching posi-
tion, Lazarus gained experience making
documentaries. She founded a company
called Cambridge Documentary Films with
which she achieved great success, win-
ning an Academy Award for Best Short
Documentary in 1993 for “Defending Our
Lives,” about domestic violence.
“The most important thing for this class
is to make films about things that the stu-
dents are passionate about,” Lazarus said.
“Everything follows from that. I try not
to interfere with passion, despite having
my own personal preferences as everyone
does.”
As a teacher, Lazarus is very proud of her
students. “That these students could learn
this technique in such a short time is amaz-
Weekender
ing,” she said. “Their work is really excel-
lent, and films from this class have won
many student competitions in the past,
including a student Emmy a couple of years
ago.” Though the students are still more
concerned with getting As than Academy
Awards, all of the films produced from this
class demonstrate a great skill level and an
attention to social justice.
“Falling Through the Cracks”
Freshman Allison Fisk worked on her
film “Falling Through the Cracks: Mapendo
and Africa’s Forgotten Refugees” with two
seniors, David Axelrod and Jeremy Hirsch.
“Nearly everyone in the class came in with
minimal to no film experience,” Fisk said. “I
did a film for my high school senior project,
but now I see all the things that I did wrong
or could have done better. You just learn so
much from this class.”
“Falling Through the Cracks” focuses on
a local organization in Cambridge called
Mapendo International that finds refugees
who have either left or been ejected from
of refugee camps. “Mapendo tries to locate
refugees who are not receiving adequate
help from the [United Nations],” Fisk said.
“There are many global issues, especially in
Africa, that people don’t know about. The
conflict in Darfur has become globalized
and has received a lot of media coverage,
but it’s nothing new.”
The film shows that refugees don’t always
end up in U.N. camps, and, even if they do,
they are not always safe there. One man wit-
nessed a massacre in the U.N. refugee camp
he was staying in, just barely escaping with
his life. The film also points out that many
refugee resettlement slots in the United States
go unfilled due to overwhelming demand for
humanitarian assistance abroad.
“Tourette’s: What Makes You Tic?”
“Tourette’s: What Makes You Tic?” takes
a different approach, choosing instead to
focus on one particular person’s struggle
as the face of a larger movement. That
person is Marc Elliot, a recent graduate of
Washington University in St. Louis who
has Tourette’s Syndrome. Senior Lily Safran
produced this film with fellow seniors
Alison Barash, Julia Bourque and Megan
Terraforte.
Safran is fascinated by Elliot and his
ability to turn his disability into a positive
message of tolerance. “He just has such
a bright outlook on life,” Safran said. “He
really makes people think about tolerating
other people, and he wants to spread that
message, so he’s taking a year off before
medical school to go on a speaking tour.”
The film follows Elliot around Boston,
demonstrating how strangers judge him for
his tics, during which he repeatedly says
inappropriate words and clacks his teeth
together. His past difficulties with Tourette’s
are also shown in the film, including his
run-in with the law after disturbing people
on a public bus. “Tourette’s” provides an
interesting, in-depth portrait of a man deal-
ing with his illness and persevering in life in
spite of it.
“Honk!: No Noise Is Illegal”
The Honk! Festival, although still
unknown to some, is an annual gathering
of street bands from around the globe in
order to celebrate anything and everything.
Now in its third year, Honk! may appear
on the surface to be a senseless celebra-
tion of debauchery, but Tufts sophomore
Jane Ottensmeyer, junior Sara DeForest
and seniors Deborah Neigher and Chloe
Zimmerman set out to see what was really
behind the festival with their film “Honk!:
No Noise Is Illegal.”
“I’ve always liked the idea that music can
cause social change,” DeForest said, “and
we learned more and more that Honkfest
is more than just a music festival; it’s about
social activism as well.”
The film takes a look at many of the
individuals behind Honk! and what drives
5
Graphics by Marianna Bender
them, but also includes the opinions of
passersby who simply enjoy the festivities.
“When we first got to the festival, we
just thought about how much fun this was
— with all the costumes and abnormal
things that you don’t really see every day,”
DeForest said. “But after a while, we saw
that there really was a serious message
underneath it and that these people really
wanted to use their music and their bands
to promote social change.”
“The most difficult part of the filming
process came with the fact that Honkfest is
a two-day celebration, so all of the filming
had to be done over the span of 48 hours,”
she continued. “On the day of the festival
we just showed up with two cameras and
started grabbing people for interviews.
Meanwhile there were 25 bands all playing
at the same time around you, it was really
hectic.”
Despite being newcomers to the festi-
val, the team set out to uncover how such
an unusual festival came into existence.
“Going into this we didn’t know how weird
this festival was,” DeForest said, “but there
are so many alternative lifestyles there, it
was great.”
Despite the eccentric nature of the festi-
val, the team kept focused by emphasizing
the social aspects of the story and try-
ing to effect change. “The biggest theme
of the film is just to get your voice out
there, through whatever medium you can,”
Ottensmeyer said.
“The Art of Delinquency”
Street Art, sometimes known as graffiti,
is more prevalent today than ever before.
According to some Tufts students, however,
it remains largely misunderstood. Seniors
Andrea Abarca and Charlotte Huffman,
juniors Moon Kim and Nabila Santa-Cristo
and sophomore Ariana McLean have taken
it upon themselves to take a deeper look at
see FILMS, page 8
6 The Tufts Daily Weekender Thursday, December 4, 2008

Album Review

‘Chinese Democracy,’ the newest album from

Guns N’ Roses, leaves band’s fans seeing red
by Joshua Zeidel
Daily Staff Writer
Axl Rose might not be a “people person.”
The singer’s list of enemies runs the gamut,
from the dead Kurt Cobain to the asinine
Chinese Democracy
Guns N’ Roses
Geffen Records
Jon Bon Jovi; from his former Guns N’ Roses
bandmates now in Velvet Revolver, to for-
mer opening act Eagles of Death Metal —
and even clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger.
And the list just got substantially longer,
now that Rose has successfully irritated
the government of the People’s Republic of
China.
His latest project, “Chinese Democracy,”
is the first album released under the Guns
N’ Roses name since 1993, despite the fact
that Rose is the only remaining original
member of the band. As a result, the vocal-
ly acrobatic Rose has maintained creative
control over the entire production with an
attention to detail so keen that it borders on
the obsessive-compulsive.
But forget the hype, the delays, the bud-
get and the egos, which have monumental-
ly overshadowed the music itself. “Chinese
Democracy” is, at the very least, a size-
able album, weighing in at 14 tracks, none
less than three and a half minutes long.
“Democracy” opens with the album’s hard-
rocking title track, although not before a
solid minute of distant echoes and other
strange audio effects.
Rest assured, however, that the produc-
tion budget wasn’t wasted on experimental
self-indulgence. The album chugs along
with a dogged, rocking persistence that
features an incredible interplay of layers
This is actually Axl Rose’s current ride; he’s a little strapped for cash at the moment. Please buy
his album? Please?
and sounds. Besides the standard Guns N’
Roses pounding bass, drums and guitar
crunch, Rose used keyboards, synthesiz-
ers, drum loops, horn sections, overdubbed
movie quotes and choirs to achieve his
incredibly specific artistic vision. Some of
the songs, such as “Street of Dreams” and
amazon.com
“There Was A Time,” even incorporate all of
it together: the metal shredding, the blues
rock feel, some piano, clean guitar and
Rose’s many different singing voices.
Other tracks move into more modern,
at times strange territory. “Riad N’ The
Bedouins” transfers seamlessly from a
sound-effect intro into a vaguely amelodic
nu-metal hook that simply does not satisfy.
The album redeems itself fairly effectively
with the following track, “Sorry,” a slower,
darker ballad in which Rose, rather than
apologizing for his often erratic behavior,
defiantly tells his critics and rivals where
they can shove it: “You close your eyes/ All
well and good/ I’ll kick your ass/ Like I said
that I would.” Despite the overdone brava-
do, the song represents a welcome musical
departure from the previous upbeat tracks
on “Democracy.” The stylistic change to
something a little slower is later revisited,
to the album’s benefit, on the plaintive and
epic ballad “This I Love.”
Despite the overdone splendor of the
whole project, the most impressive talent
Axl Rose possesses is still his vocal abil-
ity — the man has incredible versatility as
a singer, in terms of both tone and range.
Unfortunately, he also definitively fails in
the producing role: The songs, often quite
instrumentally challenging, feel too per-
fectly performed, as if they’ve been pushed
beyond their capacity. In trying to showcase
his band’s talents, “Chinese Democracy”
sounds as though Rose has tried to dem-
onstrate every one of these talents on each
and every track. This may not be entirely
disadvantageous, as it means that every
song has the potential to go in any direc-
tion at any time. But the listener may feel a
bit disoriented when every song does go in
every direction, every time. As paradoxical
as it sounds, all that variety and instrumen-
tal perfection quickly becomes boring.
Still, “Chinese Democracy” has its gems,
and enough of an original Guns N’ Roses
sound behind all that expensive modern-
ization to keep old-school GNR fans happy.
But with all that time, money and hype,
Rose has almost unavoidably set himself up
for criticism — listeners expect an unfet-
tered masterpiece, and in this they will be
disappointed.

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the death of Socrates to the assassination of Benazir
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Valerie Schenkman (A’09) / Bolivia, 2007 / Marching in the Oruro Carnaval Parade
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Weekender Interview | Marisa Tomei
Actress Tomei wrestles with portraying
aging stripper in Aranofsky’s newest film
by Christopher Rivlin
Contributing Writer
The Daily caught up with actor Marisa
Tomei, of “My Cousin Vinny”(1992) fame, to
discuss her upcoming film “The Wrestler,”
starring Mickey Rourke and directed by
Darren Aronofsky of “Requiem for a Dream”
(2000). The film, set for a Dec. 17 release,
follows the life of ex-pro wrestler Randy “the
Ram” Robinson, who makes his living by
performing at amateur events. His career
is unfortunately cut short by a heart attack,
and the film follows his relationship with
an aging stripper (played by Tomei) and his
struggle to repair his relationship with his
estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood).
Christopher Rivlin: Throughout the film,
you are very good at conveying the distance
your character tries to keep from Randy
— what was the inspiration for this per-
formance? Was it past experience or some-
thing else?
Marisa Tomei: Well, it was more Darren’s
[Aronofsky] views on that, though of course
I drew from past experiences and my imagi-
nation, as well. I mean, I never thought it
was a romantic relationship with Randy;
I think she liked him but also saw him a
little bit as a cash cow. She enjoys spend-
ing time with him, though: He is the client
she likes dancing for most. Then, the more
vulnerable he gets, the more vulnerable
she gets. His opening up opens her up. It’s
clear to her that Randy is trying to lead the
relationship in a romantic direction, but
she’s not quite sure whether she wants that.
I get the feeling that she sees Randy as more
of a comrade than a lover — they’ve both
gone through these incredibly challenging
lifestyles using their bodies … and now
their bodies are failing them. But I think
that because she’s worked as a dancer for so
long … when she’s giving a lap dance … she
has to cut off her real feelings. Then, when
her real feelings start bubbling up, she’s
confused as to how she’s supposed to chan-
nel it, so that’s why the back-and-forth with
Randy happens.
CR: It appeared to me that your character
Top Ten | Highly Anticipated Disappointments
Like many Americans with a vague
recollection of the 1990s, we at the
Daily were eagerly awaiting the release
of “Chinese Democracy,” the latest
album from Guns N’ Roses that report-
edly took more than a decade to com-
plete. In order to make Axl Rose feel
better (and ourselves for shelling out
10 bucks), we’ve compiled this list of
the comparably disappointing events in
recent memory.
10. Prom: Between agonizing about
asking a date, stressing over an outfit
and foraying into the dubious realm of
“the prom group,” the lead-up to that
fateful spring weekend night is resound-
ingly unpleasant. Then, of course, there’s
the evening itself, with over-eager par-
ents snapping one impossibly awkward
photo after the next, a limo that smells
(did I really pay $80 for this?!) and the
dance itself, with teachers uncomfort-
ably mingling amongst the perspiring
masses. And, lest we forget, the after
party is also generally a disappointment,
unless you especially enjoy drinking and
driving.
9. Brian Wilson’s “SMiLE” (2004): One
word: meh :(
8. “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of
the Crystal Skull” (2008): All summer,
we waited patiently for the return of
the whip-cracking crusader and debated
whether Ford’s 66-year-old body would
hold up against rolling boulders and
booby-trapped tombs. Then the fran-
chise went all M. Night Shyamalan and
brought in a ridiculous alien plot, com-
plete with a flying saucer. Epic fail.
The Tufts Daily
In order to get in character, Tomei had to show some skin.
didn’t actually hate what she did; indeed,
she seemed to take a sort of pride or satis-
faction from it. I was wondering whether
you could talk about this, and how her job
might affect her home life?
MT: Well, I think that she does like what she
7. Queen + Paul Rogers: Queen would
have been nothing without its flamboy-
ant frontman, Freddie Mercury. Yes, their
music is awesome, but did you people
honestly think it would be remotely the
same without him? Not even bassist John
Deacon wanted to be around for that
trainwreck. Yet, somehow, the group
begged audiences to be disappointed by
sticking with its original name.
6. Recovered Funds: So we get handed
a nice sum of money with five zeros
and no strings attached, and what do
we do? Town hall meetings? Give me a
break; we want a water slide already…
5. “Quantum of Solace” (2008): After
the success of “Casino Royale” (2006),
James Bond fanboys across America
couldn’t wait to see Daniel Craig kick
butt and take names in his second out-
ing as the famed super-spy. After a long
wait and much anticipation, viewers
were left with nothing short of a bad
revenge flick with Jason Bourne-style
fighting and acting. Let’s hope the next
movie isn’t such a downer. Here’s a clue:
Bond girls + villains = good movie.
4. “Spiderman 3” (2007): Are you seri-
ous, Sam Raimi? The other two films
leading up to this weren’t bad at all, and
then you make this steaming pile... Why
did you ruin the thrillogy?! The first part
of this film was fine, but there was no
need to break out a dancing emo Tobey
Maguire that served no other purpose
aside from inducing laughter. Nothing
could have saved this film, not even
James Franco’s impressive green screen
acting. Face it: try as you might, you can’t
make sand scary. It just doesn’t work.
Weekender
allposters.com
does, and that was a decision I made early
on [pauses] because I wanted to [laughs]
because I wanted to enjoy it. I found that the
more women that I spoke to, well, they’re
connected to dancing. Dancing is just such a
see TOMEI, page 8
3. “Chinese Democracy” (2008): The
funny thing about Axl Rose’s long-await-
ed release is that no one really thought it
was going to be that good to begin with
because, hey, let’s face it, it’s Axl Rose.
That said, the album still stank, and after
13 years and nearly 13 million dollars in
production costs, it should have at least
been mediocre. It’s almost less funny
now that he actually released the album;
actually, it was better when it was just a
pipe dream. See how much you’ve sto-
len from us with this record, Axl?
2. “Star Wars: Episode I” (1999): The
Rastafarian special-needs lizard saves the
planet by being a complete failure at life.
The script sounds like it was written by
an inebriated raccoon who was in the
middle of a nasty divorce. George Lucas
even managed to make Natalie Portman
look like a snow tiger that had had its
face run through a wheat thresher. But
at least there were lots of cool comput-
er-animated creatures ... right?
1. Y2K: Naturally, the only thing worse
than the disappointment of the century
has to be the disappointment of the
millennium. With all the hype associ-
ated with the approach of the sec-
ond millennium, we found ourselves
let down that something dramatic and
catastrophic didn’t happen. Computers
morphing into robots and taking over
the world, perhaps? A massive blackout
would have been nice, too (Pls don’t use
candles!). Not to mention the Second
Coming expectations — way to bail out
on us, Jesus.
—— compiled by the Daily Arts
Department
7
Mikey Goralnik | Paint The Town Brown
12.31.2008,
Future Rock/
Daedelus/Dark
Party ft.
Eliot Lipp
I
love summer holidays. I can think of few
things I enjoy more than getting my crew
together on a hazy, hot Independence or
Memorial Day afternoon to drink a few
beers, have a few laughs and slowly spit-
roast a wild pig with an apple in its mouth
over a gigantic fire.
Non-summer holidays are an entirely
different and worse story. Here’s a list of
most of the major non-summer holidays.
Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.: freezing.
Washington’s birthday: boring. Columbus
Day: racist. Thanksgiving: gluttonous.
Kwanukkahmas: too secular. Halloween:
too pagan. See a pattern? Unless a holi-
day falls between the months of May and
September, it’s either entirely too cold to
celebrate, or it isn’t worth celebrating.
This is true in all cases except New Year’s
Eve, which is definitely my favorite holiday
that doesn’t involve a wild pig. Not only
does New Year’s give us a chance to take
stock of our year and lay out our detailed
master plan for how we plan to one-up
ourselves next year, but it also challenges
us to put together a celebration festive
enough to both bookend an entire year
and jumpstart another one. Since the alter-
native to properly raging on New Year’s is
having one year come to a whimpering
end and another year start with a pathetic
fizzle, you all but have to go all out on this
holiday.
This is, in part, why, from my short list
of three potential gala weekends, I’ve cho-
sen to go to Chicago to see Future Rock,
Daedelus and Eliot Lipp for New Year’s.
While certainly loud, rowdy and grandiose
enough to be appropriate for NYE, the light,
beer-soaked bro-fest of My Morning Jacket
at Madison Square Garden isn’t exactly
where I want to be when the ball drops.
Four nights of STS9 (and their after-parties)
in Atlanta is more like it, but I’ve done that
two of the last three years and, frankly,
I can’t keep up with that level of raging
anymore. I have a sensitive system — don’t
mock me.
At this stage in my life, an intimate night,
rich with all kinds of beats from live house
to Italian disco to sweaty electro-funk and
back a few times, is just about what the
doctor ordered. Granted, Chicago is one
of the least hospitable NYE locales in the
world that is both south of Whitehorse,
Yukon and north of Somalia. But since it’s
only slightly across the Mississippi River
from my native St. Louis, I figure that by
saving some money on travel costs, I can
devote more resources to obtaining the
proper ruckus suit to wear whilst enjoying
some of the smartest, most rousing music
heard anywhere in the country.
While the up-tempo electronica and
high-energy live instrumentation of head-
liners Future Rock is certainly a draw, I’m
much more excited to see what Eliot Lipp
and Daedelus do. Though they are two of
today’s most exciting producers, their rep-
utations as consistently elite performers
occasionally overshadow their producer
credentials, though for different reasons.
With his futuristic take on booty-kickin’
B-boy sounds, Lipp’s music just screams,
“PARTY TO THIS.” Though his music is
slightly more experimental, Daedelus’
years of performance experience and his
keen awareness of crowds’ tastes make him
no less of a sight to behold.
The music will be fantastic, but, ulti-
mately, I trust these performers to recog-
nize what is at stake for a New Year’s party
and to step up their games, which is why
I’ll be where they are for ’09. The simul-
taneous ending and beginning of years
is an important event, and, for the sakes
of both closure and momentum, it abso-
lutely needs to be done right. Otherwise,
it’s back to counting the days until pig
season.
Mikey Goralnik is a senior majoring in
American studies. He can be reached at
Michael.Goralnik@tufts.edu.
8 The Tufts Daily Weekender Thursday, December 4, 2008

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE

TUFTS DAILY
Dear Rat Pack,
Although we all love
swaying drunkenly
along with your ren-
ditions of “Baby It’s
Cold Outside,” which,
for those who haven’t
noticed, is essentially a
man coercing his femi-
nine companion to sleep
with him, it’s getting to
be a bit much.
Courtesy Allison Fisk For males, your
Pictured above is a family of refugees from Congo that also survived a massacre in Burundi. The delightfully misogy-
student film “Falling Through the Cracks” includes their testimony.
nistic songs are a pleas-
Student film explores uneasy relationship ant reminder of times
past, but with the mod-
between street art and law enforcement ern age of political cor- smartcanuck.ca

rectness, we’re afraid we can’t be friends anymore. We non-females have to

FILMS
continued from page 5
the artistic phenomenon that is covering
cities all across the globe.
“There are all kinds of opinions on street
art,” McLean said, “so we decided to take a
look it and see if it’s vandalism, how it com-
pares to graffiti, the penalties involved and,
more importantly, the idea that art should
be available to everybody.”
While the main thrust of the film was to
get viewers to reconsider their opinions of
not only street art, but art in general, the
film takes a deeper look at the lives of the
artists as well as those who try to stop them
from practicing on public spaces.
“We interviewed several street artists,
photographers and community artists who
are paid to [create] public art and aren’t con-
sidered vandals, and then we got the other
side and interviewed the people who are
hunting down these vandals,” McLean said.
Strangely, the film reveals that many artists
get paid to create this street art, while those
who try to nab them are largely volunteers.
It may come as a surprise that the group
members found themselves more empathet-
ic with those who were trying to stop the art
being placed on public property, since the
art did often have the potential to cause real
harm. Even so, McLean explained that rather
than picking a side, the film is really about
“the struggle between art and the law, and
how it’s more of a cycle than a progression.”
Time to reflect
Whether it’s through street art or African
refugees, music festivals or a man with a dis-
order, these students have used their time at
Tufts to create films that could inspire social
change. Their art enables others to see a sec-
tion of society that they might never have
discovered, and hopefully, each film will give
its viewers something new to think about.
These four films will be shown on
Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. in Pearson 104.
Admission is free and open to the general
public.
keep up our image of being as sentimentally tied to the holiday as everyone
else, despite the fact that, yes, some of us still enjoy it simply because we get
a week off from work and can drink spiked eggnog while watching football
and ignoring our in-laws.
But, then again, your songs remind us of a simpler time, when men were
men, women were women, and Christmas was Christmas, not the Holiday
Season. As anti-feministic as it may be, there’s something comforting in
reverting back to the horrendously unequal ways of the 1950’s. Oh, right,
that’d be the comfort of bigotry.
Nowadays we have Harry Connick Jr. telling us what Christmas is all
about, but it just ain’t the same. Frank Sinatra’s version of “The Twelve
Days of Christmas,” which had been re-written to feature each of his children
and his wife (at the time) telling of what they got their beloved patriarch, has
a special glow to it that no version of “Ave Maria” could ever match.
Though it’s barely December and we’re already a bit sick of Christmas
music, here at the Daily, we raise our glasses to you, our darling purveyors
of inexcusable male chauvinism.
Sincerely,
The Daily Arts Department

ONLINE @ tuftsdaily.com Tomei delves into the mind of an aging

stripper; explores identity, physicality
THE SCENE | “Planet B-Boy” TOMEI
continued from page 7
primal human expression; it can be a soulful
approach this?

MT: Well, it was super-super-confusing

thing. A lot of the women feel really empow-
ered when they’re dancing; they feel really
beautiful — then there’s a small bunch that
are like, “I’ve gotta get out of this hole of a
life.” For the most part — and this is a totally
gross generalization — but there’s a messed-
up-ness in the home life and then there’s like
a respite by being able to dance. It’s like any
art form: Highbrow or lowbrow, it’s still that
person’s expression. I thought it was almost
a transcendent thing for her.
CR: It seemed to me that the movie was
about identity in a lot of ways, kind of how
you reconcile who you used to be and who
you actually are. I was just wondering if you,
as an actress, have ever experienced that
sort of identity crisis when moving forward
with your career?
MT: Hmm, well, not so much in my public
life, but definitely at transition points in my
own life. And probably two big changes
when I was like, “Who am I now if I’m not
that person?” I had a relationship of like 15
years and when that was over, I thought,
“Well, if I’m not that person anymore, who
am I now?” It is about how much you
can grow, not even just reinvention from
the outside or a public persona thing, but
just expanding yourself. And that’s what
indiewire.com
Randy’s problem is; he can’t really expand
past that wrestler — that’s all he is. I think
Successful documentaries harness the passion and energy of the topic at hand. that because she has that child there, she
If that topic involves high-energy dance competitions, the movie is bound to be a has the hope of more breadth and pos-
crowd-pleaser. sibility. Though in some ways, I think this
Last night, the Pan Asian Council at Tufts hosted a screening of “Planet B-Boy,” a movie is making that transition for me ...
documentary about the global phenomenon of breakdancing. The film featured an because this age [the early 40s] is an age
in-depth look at the lives of three aspiring breakdancers from different areas of the where people say we can’t act anymore
globe whose lives come together for a world championship in Germany. — Hollywood hokum (laughs). I feel this
In addition to providing entertainment, the screening also raised money for Refugee movie has opened up another layer for me
and Immigration Assistance Center (RIAC) in Jamaica Plain through a sale of snacks. as an actor.
For a detailed description of the movie and event, visit the Arts section’s blog, “The
Scene,” at TuftsDaily.com. CR: Within your character there seemed
to be two characters of Cassidy, the strip-
per, and Pam, the mom — how did you
[laughs]. It took a lot to get into that mind-
set of being one person, but also someone
else. I mean, she’d never be a conscious
enough person even though she’s trying to
say that she is to have two genuinely sepa-
rate personalities. And, in many ways, she’s
screwed up. Every day she exercises the
muscles of manipulation and deception
and fantasy-giving. It’s just a whole other
persona; she’s just wearing a mask all the
time. I think she’s slipped into something
she’s not in control of …. So when we were
doing those scenes and we had real danc-
ers from the club, I’d ask them, “What are
you thinking when you’re looking at these
guys?” and they’d say, “Which one has more
money?”
CR: I know this film is a lot about realism
and you did a lot of research for it. How did
the research you did for this film compare
to one like “Before The Devil Knows You’re
Dead” [2007]?
MT: Well, I didn’t really have to do very
much research for “Before The Devil Knows
You’re Dead” — who was she really? Just
a boring Upper East Side dodo head … I
don’t know, just a vapid person. I mean, that
whole thing about research, I say it because
journalists know about it and it’s easy to talk
about. But mostly, its imagination and just
like whatever it is: dreams, intuition, osmo-
sis, hanging around.
CR: How about in the performance itself?
Did it affect the way you moved, or the
subtleties of your motion, your physicality?
MT: This film definitely had a lot of physi-
cality, definitely the physical carriage of her
when she’s Cassidy. I tried to be aware of
and carry myself like that all the time. With
this style, the camera comes to you, the DP
becomes a part of you — he moves the way
you move.
Thursday, December 4, 2008 The Tufts Daily advertisement 9

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10 The Tufts Daily Editorial | Letters Thursday, December 4, 2008

EDITORIAL
THE TUFTS DAILY Disappointment in Georgia
Robert S. Silverblatt A mere month after America chose in the long run. Obama ran on a platform to prompt them to turn out this election are
Editor-in-Chief change and political activism over the same that encouraged the type of activism and not solved and will not be solved if we do not
old Washington politics, Georgians have participation in the democratic process that continue to participate in politics. The eco-
Editorial made it clear that they have little interest has been absent from our country for years. nomic crisis will not fix itself. Neither will our
Rachel Dolin Managing Editors in keeping the torch burning. On Tuesday, We cannot allow “Yes, we can” to turn into addiction to oil. Americans need to continue
Kristin Gorman Georgia voters reelected Republican Sen. “Yes, we did.” to speak up and to keep utilizing the energy
Jacob Maccoby Editorial Page Editors Saxby Chambliss in a runoff contest. For every step forward, we take two steps that elected the first African-American presi-
Jason Richards What was disappointing about the runoff back. We cannot allow ourselves to slip dent of the United States.
Harrison Jacobs
Vittoria Elliott was not so much the outcome, but rather back into apathy and forget the lessons we In the weeks leading up to the runoff elec-
the process. On Nov. 4, 3.7 million Georgians learned on Nov. 4. Real change can be gen- tion in Georgia, extensive get-out-the-vote
Giovanni Russonello Executive News Editor voted in the Senate election, compared with erated if we participate in our democracy. drives and campaigning by prominent poli-
Sarah Butrymowicz News Editors a mere two million people in the runoff. However, as Merle Black, a political expert at ticians aimed to maintain the turnout rates
Pranai Cheroo The low turnout could signal a return to Emory University, told The New York Times, from Nov. 4; but that effort failed, and only a
Nina Ford the pattern of apathy that many (the Daily “The importance of electing the first African- fraction of the voters that turned out for the
Ben Gittleson
Gillian Javetski included) had hoped was stamped out with American president in history generated first election returned for the second. While
Jeremy White the election of Barack Obama. enormous enthusiasm. Everything else was it remains to be seen whether the Senate
Many politicos have stated that the elec- anticlimactic.” While nothing can ever be as runoff election in Georgia is indicative of
Alexandra Bogus Assistant News Editors
Michael Del Moro tion of Barack Obama signaled a changing monumental as the moment when America a larger return to the political culture of
of the guard in Washington and a shift in the elected Obama, all the work to reach that years past, we must do our part to continue
Carrie Battan Executive Features Editor political attitude of the nation as a whole. point is essentially worthless unless we build our participation in the democratic process.
Jessica Bidgood Features Editors If we return to the attitude of apathy that upon it. The voters of Georgia forgot that and Take the low voter turnout in Georgia as a
Robin Carol has permeated our nation for a generation, let their government be chosen for them. warning: We cannot allow the momentum
Kerianne Okie however, Obama’s election will mean little The issues that mattered enough to voters of this election to dissipate.
Charlotte Steinway

Sarah Bliss Assistant Features Editors j.j. gANDHI

Meghan Pesch

Mike Adams Executive Arts Editor

Jessica Bal Arts Editors

Grant Beighley
Sarah Cowan
Catherine Scott

Emma Bushnell Assistant Arts Editors

Matthew DiGirolamo

Jyll Saskin Executive Op-Ed Editor

Jwala Gandhi Assistant Op-Ed Editors

Nina Grossman
Harrison Jacobs
Ellen Kan
Andrew Rohrberger
Molly Rubin

Thomas Eager Executive Sports Editor

Sapna Bansil Sports Editors

Evans Clinchy
Philip Dear
David Heck
Carly Helfand
Noah Schumer

Scott Janes Assistant Sports Editor

Letter to the editor
Jo Duara Executive Photo Editor Dear editor: over, since we’re not even talking about who need it more.” The TCU’s $1.3-mil-
Alex Schmieder Photo Editors I applaud Matt Shapanka for making an assisting people whom we’ll never meet lion budget is sound. Every student group’s
Laura Schultz excellent case for giving part of the recov- on some distant continent. This crisis is at need is already met, from the Monty Python
Rebekah Sokol ered funds toward financial aid. As Shapanka home — where we live, where we study, Society to the Beelzebubs to Jumbos for Life.
Annie Wermiel
wrote, “The very essence of a university is where we work. It’s in our midst and there- Our student activities are already vibrant
James Choca Assistant Photo Editors its students. The very essence of Tufts is the fore not a matter of charity, but instead and successful. In fact, the TCU has a signifi-
Emily Eisenberg diversity of thoughts, ideas and backgrounds of our own self interest. Shapanka might cant annual surplus that can accommodate
Aalok Kanani
Meredith Klein that a robust financial aid system generates not know how deep the economic crisis is. any emergencies, as well as new groups.
Danai Macridi and fosters.” Of course, Shapanka makes I’m glad he isn’t an economist. If Shapanka That surplus won’t change during the crisis
Tim Straub the mistake of surmising that because the doesn’t think we’re in a crisis right now, then since we’re just about the only organization
administration is committed to making ends when will he? We’ve been in a recession in these times with a fixed income. So why
PRODUCTION meet, it will somehow magically solve a $36 since 2007. Millions of jobs are going up in on earth wouldn’t we help, when the TCU
million shortfall through ... what exactly? It smoke. Banks are still going under. People has nothing to lose?
Marianna Bender Production Director
seems that to Shapanka, being committed aren’t spending. The entire financial system The Tufts administration will do every-
Emily Neger Executive Layout Editor
is enough. By Shapanka’s standard, doing is broken in a way it hasn’t been in recent thing in its power to resolve this financial
Kelsey Anderson Layout Editors everything in one’s power is the same as hav- memory; these systemic issues won’t go mess. But the administration does not have
Leanne Brotsky ing absolute power. Thought equals action. away overnight just because Shapanka can’t power over everything. After all, funding
Jennifer Iassogna
Julia Izumi Desire equals results. What if we lived our see them. every Tufts student’s education is a moral
Andrew Petrone lives by that logic? According to Shapanka’s Tufts, like every other private university, is imperative. Shapanka never made a plausi-
Muhammad Qadri standard, anyone who is committed to any- in serious trouble, to the tune of $36 million. ble case for why we should be exempt from
Daniel Simon
Amani Smathers thing doesn’t need any help. The commit- Any penny that we give to assist financial that imperative. Gestures and words won’t
Steven Smith ment itself is enough. We’re all committed aid will help the administration in its hercu- keep Tufts afloat. Only action will. But while
Katie Tausanovitch to eradicating world hunger — so there will lean task of saving every student, academic I believe Shapanka’s views aren’t representa-
Adam Raczkowski Executive Technical Manager be no more world hunger, right? The Bush program and staff member. We’re all part of tive of the student body — and the recov-
administration is committed to eliminating this organism named Tufts University. Every ered funds survey bears this out — there
Michael Vastola Technical Manager AIDS in Africa — why should we help, then? other part of our body is sacrificing enter- are many senators like him who won’t give
Hena Kapadia Executive Online Editor Problem solved. If the White House is com- tainment and flab for the greater good — all money to the greater good unless given no
mitted, AIDS will be gone by Tuesday. these were funds that were also originally other choice. Despite all attempts to reach
Minah Kim Online Editors Does commitment mean we should not intended for another purpose, although a compromise and split the recovered funds
Matt Skibinski New Media Editor contribute our own resources because some I’m sure Shapanka will find excuses for with equitable results, they insist that not a
higher power will take care of it? I don’t see TCU exceptionalism until the cows come penny of the funds be given to financial aid.
Kelly Moran Webmaster Shapanka’s logic being applied in reality. home. The TCU cannot offer anything that The rest of the community will continue to
Caryn Horowitz Executive Copy Editor Instead, individuals and NGOs work hand- comes close to the vital services the uni- make sacrifices, while the TCU plays the
in-hand with the government toward a versity administration provides. New tables part of the band that refuses to stop play-
Grace Lamb-Atkinson Copy Editors greater cause when it comes to, well, every- and chairs for the campus center, student ing music while the rest of the ship fights
Michelle Hochberg
Ben Smith thing worth fighting for. And if, as Shapanka parties and clubs — do these things really hard to plug a hole in the keel. The hole
Christopher Snyder writes, financial aid is “the very essence of a define Tufts? Perhaps they’re up there with may eventually be filled and the ship may
Elisha Sum university,” why would we suddenly stand financial aid to Shapanka, but not to the rest resume full speed, but the rest of the crew
Ricky Zimmerman
aside when our diversity is threatened — of us. will not forget the unwillingness of a select
Brianna Beehler Assistant Copy Editors when we have something worth fighting As Shapanka wrote, “Those who have few to help when they had the choice.
Casey Burrows for? Shapanka’s argument simply does not been blessed with means have a responsi-
Alison Lisnow
Rachel Oldfield make sense. bility to take every available opportunity to Sincerely,
Mary Jo Pham Shapanka’s argument is fallacious twice use their resources for good, to help those Toby Bonthrone, TCU senator
Lily Zahn

Malcolm Charles Executive Business Director Corrections

The Dec. 2 article, “ResLife tweaks lottery process,” contained an inaccuracy. It stated that the Office of Residential Life and
Dwijo Goswami Receivables Manager
Learning had not held information sessions last school year to educate students about the housing lottery. In fact, ResLife holds
Brenna Duncan Head Ad Manager these meetings every year; this year, it held two particularly early. The credit for the page-two photograph accompanying the same
The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, pub-
article was incorrect. The credit read, “MCT,” but it should have said, “Daily File Photo.”
lished Monday through Friday during the academic year, and The Dec. 3 article, Balbach: Big Tobacco looks to women to expand market,” said that 50 percent of men and four percent of
distributed free to the Tufts community. women smoke, according to Balbach. The article should have specified that she attributed these numbers to the population in
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EDITORIAL POLICY Editorials that appear on this page are written by the Editorial Page editors, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must be submitted by 4 p.m. and should be handed ADVERTISING POLICY All advertising copy is subject
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Thursday, December 4, 2008
An interview with Bob Dole
by Michael Bendetson
Bob Dole is one of the most prominent Republicans of
the past half-century. Representing Kansas, Dole was a
member of the House of Representatives (1961-1969) and
the Senate (1969-1996). During his time in the Senate, he
served as both the minority and majority leader. In addi-
tion, he was the vice presidential nominee on the losing
ticket with Gerald Ford in 1976. Two decades later, he was
the Republican nominee for president and was defeated by
then-incumbent Bill Clinton. His wife Elizabeth is a sena-
tor representing North Carolina, but she lost her reelection
bid last month to Democratic challenger Kay Hagan. Dole
is currently retired, although he works part-time for a law
firm and is still engaged in political consulting.
Michael Bendetson: Over the course of your long
career, which pieces of legislation are you most proud of
writing and sponsoring?
Bob Dole: Well, there are a lot of pieces of [legislation]
that I am proud of. However, the two that I am most
proud of are the 1983 Social Security Amendment and
the American[s] [with] Disabilities Act. These things
made a major difference in many people’s lives. I would
also have to add the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday bill,
even though few people remember it.
MB: In his book “What’s The Matter with Kansas?
How Conservatives Won the Heart of America,” which
was first published in 2004, Thomas Frank argues that
social issues are the sole reason that the people of
Kansas support Republicans. He adds that on most
other issues, such as taxes and health care, people in the
state are quite liberal. He cites the fact that Democratic
Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius managed to win an
easy election because of her liberal stance on all issues
except those relating to cultural or social concerns. As a
resident of the state for over 80 years and a former pub-
lic servant for the state, what is your opinion regarding
your state’s political leanings?
BD: I have to disagree with the author because I think
she is a big liberal Democrat. I consider myself, and the
people of Kansas, mainstream Republicans. I think [the
people of Kansas] like lower taxes and lower spending,
in addition to having strong social values.
MB: Earlier in the year, you wrote a letter to Rush
Limbaugh defending John McCain’s conservative values.
In response, Mitt Romney added, “Well, it’s probably the
last person I would have wanted to have write a letter
for me. I think there are a lot of folks that tend to think
that maybe John McCain’s race is a bit like Bob Dole’s
race — that it’s the guy who’s the next in line; he’s the
inevitable choice and we’ll give it to him, and then it
won’t work. I think that the right course for a winning
campaign against someone like Barack Obama is going
to have to be somebody who can speak with energy
and passion about the future of America, not another
senator who can say, ‘Well, here’s what I did on bill H.
1234. Here’s what I did on my committee assignment.’”
Unfortunately, do you think Romney was right in this
Op-ed Policy The Op-Ed section of the Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. Op-Ed welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community. Opinion articles
on campus, national and international issues should be 800 to 1,200 words in length. Editorial cartoons and Op-Eds in the form of cartoons are also welcome. All material is subject to editorial discretion, and is not guaranteed to
appear in the Tufts Daily. All material should be submitted by no later than 1 p.m. on the day prior to the desired day of publication. Material must be submitted via e-mail (oped@tuftsdaily.com) attached in .doc or .docx format.
Questions and concerns should be directed to the Op-Ed editors. The opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Tufts Daily itself.
The Tufts Daily Op-Ed
belief?
BD: No. You can go back in any campaign and it’s always,
“If you win, you are a genius, and if you lose, [you] are an
idiot.” For Democrats and Republicans, [the above] is true.
In addition, I thought Gov. Romney was more qualified
than McCain. I was not defending John McCain. In fact, I
said in that letter that I disagreed with John McCain on a
number of issues. Romney did call to apologize and admit-
ted that he had not fully read what I wrote.
MB: In the 2008 election, the Republican Party
received devastating losses in the White House and in
Congress. What steps and actions do you feel the GOP
needs to take in order to return to power?
BD: The Republicans need to wake up and get some
ideas. I do not want to say the far right dominates, but
they have too much influence. The party needs new
ideas on the economy and national security, innovations
that will appeal to the American people.
MB: For so long, the Republican Party has been the
party of anti-government leanings with regards to the
economy. From Reagan’s “Government is not the solu-
tion to our problem; government is the problem” to
Bush’s almost laissez-faire approach to the economy,
the Republicans have advocated very limited govern-
ment intervention. Now that such massive govern-
ment intervention is needed to save the U.S. economy,
do you feel that the Republicans are suffering from an
identity crisis?
BD: I think we have to be very careful. I am not so sure
the federal bailout has worked yet. People are not able to
borrow money and they are losing their homes. However,
it is your generation we need to worry about, for you and
your peers are going to have pay this massive bill.
MB: The Republican Party has struggled with regards
to obtaining the votes of minorities, especially those of
African Americans and Hispanics. What actions do you
recommend to make the conservative platform appeal-
ing to these groups?
BD: When I was party chairman of the Republican
National Committee, we made strong recruiting efforts
towards African Americans. We need to continue to
do so and recruit amongst Latinos. We need to open
up the party to more people. We cannot say, “If you do
not believe in this, you cannot be a Republican.” For
example, we cannot tell people that they cannot be a
Republican if they are pro-choice. We are an open party
and this is a big country; if we do not change, we will
continue to lose.
MB: In this past election, the majority of indepen-
dents supported Barack Obama. As a man who was
widely considered to be a moderate Republican, do you
feel that the current Republican Party has moved too far
to the right?
BD: I am not so sure that it has moved. I am a
mainstream Republican. I feel that you can still be a
Republican and not agree with the party on every issue.
No one group should dominate our party as organized
labor dominates the Democratic Party. For example,
now [labor leaders and Democrats] want to take away
11
MCT
the secret ballot from workers. The Democrats have
faults with their party and we have faults with ours.
However, there is a group of former leaders – Sen. [Tom]
Daschle, Sen. [Zell] Miller, Sen. [Howard] Baker and
myself — who are Democrats and Republicans. We are
trying to bring about stability and more progress on
issues in a bipartisan manner.
MB: As a minority leader in 1994, you stated, “Our
country has health-care problems, but no health-care
crisis.” Would you say that in the current situation, with
47 million people uninsured and far more who are inad-
equately insured, that we are in a health-care crisis?
BD: Where do you get the number 47 million? When
you watch CBS, they may tell you that number. However,
11 million of that total are illegal immigrants. Ten mil-
lion more are people who can buy their own insurance.
Finally, another 10 million are people your own age
who think they are never going to get sick or hurt and
are not vulnerable. However, we do have a lot of people
that need insurance, and we need to take care of it. I am
working now with the same group I mentioned above to
have a bipartisan solution to health care. The plan needs
to be as universal as possible, and affordable. In addi-
tion, it has to be available. We need a way of solving this,
without the government doing it all.
MB: Part of the reason for your popularity in the
Senate during your tenure was based on your ability to
cross the aisle and work with people of different parties
and beliefs. In an age of such government partisanship,
what would you recommend to bring both Democrats
and Republicans together to create the positive change
the country so desperately needs?
BD: We need honesty. You need to keep your word.
All you have in politics and life is keeping your word
to your friends and peers. Particularly in politics and
in the Senate, if I made a promise to a Democrat or a
Republican and I reneged, my credibility would have
been shot and I would not have been a leader anymore;
so I have always tried to follow that principle. As a result,
I have managed to count almost every Democrat and
Republican that I have worked with as a friend.
MB: What do you feel that President-elect Barack
Obama needs to set out and tackle in his first 100 days
in office?
BD: He must deal with this economic crisis, and then
I hope he moves to health care. He only has so many
days — maybe 100 or 180 — where he can accomplish
what he wants on these issues before division will
emerge among Democrats, interest groups and voters as
a whole. I recommend that he focus on the issues that
the country really needs to deal with, which I believe
[are] this economic mess and health care. Hopefully, he
will have time in the early months to focus on energy.
However, I will warn him that you cannot do everything
at once.
Michael Bendetson is a freshman who has not yet declared
a major.
12 The Tufts Daily advertisement Thursday, December 4, 2008

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Association of Latin American Students Juggling Coalition S-Factor
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Baha’i Student Association JumboCast Singapore Students Association
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Chabad Men's Activist Coalition Tae Kwon Do
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Child Development Association Mixed Martial Arts TCU Judiciary
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Thursday, December 4, 2008 The Tufts Daily Comics 13
Crossword
Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur by Wiley

solutions

Married to the Sea

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU
Level: Playing Candid Camera with townies

Late Night at the Daily

Solution to Wednesday's puzzle

(On Dolin being unwittingly clad in
Michael Kors)
Kristin: “You mean you’re not a fashionista?”
Dolin: “Do I look like a fashionista? Do I act
like a fashionista? I don’t even know what a
fasionista is!”

Please recycle this Daily

14 The Tufts Daily advertisement Thursday, December 4, 2008

HOCKEY FAN BUS!

SUPPORT THE JUMBOS!
Domestic Politics

Lunchtime Speakers
Seminar in American Politics: Decision
2008, Campaign for the Presidency
TUFTS vs Saint Anselm’s
Elaine Kamarck
Lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy Friday December 5th
School, veteran of Clinton White House
and Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Al
Gore during 2000 campaign

Thursday, December 4, Noon-1:15

Rabb Room at Lincoln-Filene Hall
MEN’S HOCKEY
RSVP required to Douglas.Foote@gmail.com.
Bus Leaves: 6:30pm
For information on the remaining fall speakers, From: Campus Center
visit the calendar at activecitizen.tufts.edu To: Malden Forum
Game Time: 7:00pm

Invite your friends for a FUN afternoon. Bring

your Tufts ID for entrance to game

Which will you read?

The Tufts Daily. Read it in print or at tuftsdaily.com today.

 Sports tuftsdaily.com
15

Women’s Basketball

Defense struggles, but Tufts

escapes with narrow victory
by Sapna Bansil
Daily Editorial Board

Two days after suffering its first loss of

the season, the women’s basketball team
may have gotten back on track, but one
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
(4-1, 0-0 NESCAC)
Salem, Mass., Tuesday

Tufts 39 27 — 66
Salem State 27 35 — 62

thing remains clear: There is still quite a

bit of room for improvement.
Leading by 13 with 8:15 to play in its
clash against non-conference foe Salem
State Tuesday night, national No. 20 Tufts
had to hold on for dear life down the
stretch, eventually squeaking by with a
66-62 victory over the Lady Vikings to
improve to 4-1 on the season.
“We’re not happy or satisfied with the Jo Duara/Tufts Daily
way we played,” coach Carla Berube said. Sophomore Colleen Hart, shown here during
“I thought that after we came away from a practice in early November, led the Jumbo
courtesy Mike MacGregor the Brandeis game [Sunday] not play- offense with 19 points Tuesday night.
Tufts’ Capital Alumni Network flag football team, shown here in its first season two years ing our best by any means, we’d come
ago, has gone 10-0 this season against its Washington, D.C.-based competition. After a back with a hunger and have a better the energy and the execution that we
first round bye, the team will head into postseason play this weekend. outing on both ends, offensively and brought into the game.”

Jumbo alums all but tackle the

defensively, and it just wasn’t there. The Since holding its first two opponents
focus wasn’t there, and it certainly wasn’t of the season to a combined 90 points,
our best. I’ve seen a lot better from us in Tufts has given up an average of 70 points

competition at flag football

by Carly Helfand
Daily Editorial Board
For some college athletes, gradu-
ation marks the end of their sport-
ing careers. But thanks to the Capital
Alumni Network (CAN), many Jumbo
alums in the Washington, D.C. area
have far from left their athletic glory
days behind.
Tufts’ CAN co-ed flag football team,
organized by former Jumbo athletes
Mike MacGregor (LA ’02) and Tim Ayres
(E ’02) following the success of the
school’s alumni softball team, is now
in its third season. The team’s record
currently stands at a perfect 10-0 after
going undefeated through the regular
season for the first time in the team’s
short history.
“We’ve always been pretty solid, and
we’ve kind of gotten better each year,”
said MacGregor, the team’s quarter-
back. “Now, when people talk about
good teams, we’re in the conversation
with a lot of the other big schools.”
“Different players come every sea-
son, but I think there’s been kind of a
core group of people that have been
together the whole time,” receiver Leah
see FLAG FOOTBALL, page 17
weeks past than I did [Tuesday].”
For the second consecutive game,
the Jumbos’ defensive play allowed an
unranked opponent to give them all they
could handle. On the heels of Sunday’s
81-76 setback to Brandeis — in which
Tufts yielded more than 80 points in a
game for the first time since Jan. 4, 2005
— the Jumbos coughed up a double-
digit halftime lead and nearly allowed the
Lady Vikings to mount a comeback in the
waning minutes of the contest.
“What we discussed after losing to
Brandeis was that we wanted to make
the next team we had to play wish they
hadn’t seen us after a loss,” junior guard
Vanessa Miller said. “We wanted to come
out and really make a statement with the
game, and in that sense, we as a team
were very disappointed, especially with
per game in its last three contests. For a
squad that ended last season as statisti-
cally one of the top 15 defenses in the
nation, the poor play on the defensive
end is, needless to say, disconcerting.
“It’s not quite clicking with us yet,”
Berube said. “Me being a defensive-
minded coach, it’s something that we
need to get better at; Toward the end of
last year, it was right on — we were con-
testing every single shot. It was very hard
for our opponents to get a good shot off,
and we have to find that again. We have
the talent and the personnel to do that;
we just have to work on it and show some
pride on the defensive end.”
“I think we’ve kind of lost tabs on who
we are as a basketball team over these last
see WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, page 18

Taekwondo

Women’s swimming and diving team Tufts punches its way toward the
blows Wellesley out of the water
top of collegiate Taekwondo league

courtesy Aaron Schumacher

Sophomore Amanda Huang, right, competes at a league tournament hosted by MIT Oct. 25. The Tufts
Taekwondo Club remains ranked third overall out of 21 schools in the Ivy Northeast Collegiate Taekwondo
League, which is no mean feat given the club’s relatively small membership compared to other league schools.

Philip dear
James Choca/Tufts Daily Daily Editorial Board
At its second and final home meet of the winter season, the
women’s swimming and diving team destroyed the visiting The odds are stacked against
Wellesley Blue 183-113 in head-to-head competition last night at Tufts’ Taekwondo Club: the team
the Hamilton Pool. See tomorrow’s Daily for full coverage. participates in five tournaments
per year, where it faces opponents
from up to 25 other schools; it is
the second-smallest team in its
league, the Ivy Northeast Collegiate
Taekwondo League (INCTL); the
team’s opponents are primarily
from larger, Div. I schools; and the
team is completely self-sufficient,
meaning all expenses are paid out
of the individuals’ pockets.
Yet despite all of these factors,
the Jumbos are currently ranked
third overall out of 21 teams in the
see TAEKWONDO, page 17
16 The Tufts Daily Sports Thursday, December 4, 2008

Dave Heck | The Sauce Inside College Football

Plaxico, I just Winner of the SEC title game will be in

don’t know good position to be next national champion
A
t this point, everybody’s heard
about the “Giant Idiot” Plaxico
Burress. But just in case you
No. 1 Alabama to take on No. 4 Florida in SEC title bout at Georgia Dome
haven’t, here’s a recap of the
bizarre story. On Friday Nov. 28, Burress
was in a New York nightclub with a
loaded, unlicensed gun. At one point,
he felt the gun start to slip down his
sweatpants (perhaps someone should
have told Plaxico about the existence
of belts ... or maybe just fashion; hon-
estly, what kind of superstar profes-
sional athlete wears sweatpants to a
nightclub?) and when he reached for
it, he wound up shooting himself in the
leg. He was taken to the hospital, where
it was deemed that his wound was not
too serious, and he was released later
that night.
But although Plaxico’s injuries them-
selves aren’t life-threatening, the dam-
age to his life has already been done.
Not only has he been fined and sus-
pended by the Giants for the rest of
the year for conduct detrimental to the
team, but he also faces a minimum of
three-and-a-half years in prison — and
a maximum of 15 — for unlawful pos-
session of a firearm. Somehow, Burress
has pled not guilty to weapons charges,
but I suspect the bullet that came out
of his leg might be pretty harmful to
his case. New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg has spoken publicly about
this issue more than once, and he
seems determined to make an example
out of Plaxico.
So, as a Giants fan, how do I feel in
the wake of all this? Strangely, I don’t
know.
On the one hand, this seems like the
apex of stupidity for a man who does a
lot of stupid things. Burress has always
had talent — he broke a pile of records
at Michigan State before being drafted
eighth overall by the Steelers in 2000 MCT
— but he’s never been known for his Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow led the way in his team’s 45-15 victory over the Florida State Seminoles Saturday, throwing for
character or responsibility. Since join- 185 yards and three touchdowns. Tebow and the Gators are now ready for Saturday’s SEC championship game against the No. 1-ranked
ing the Giants in 2005, he’s been fined Alabama Crimson Tide at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
more than 35 times for a total of over
$300,000, and that’s only for being late
to meetings. by Jeff Malina foes, the Auburn Tigers, 36-0 in the downs through the air while legging
Plus, at this point, the Giants don’t Daily Staff Writer Iron Bowl to improve their spotless out 507 yards on the ground for 12
really need him. He’s fourth on the record to 12-0. The Gators defeated touchdowns. And while he has put
team in receptions and second in yard- Since its inception in the 1998 sea- their bitter adversary, the Florida State together another solid case to win this
age and touchdowns, a far cry from son, the BCS selection system has pro- Seminoles, 45-15 and are now riding an year’s Heisman Trophy, Tebow is not
last season when he led the team by a vided the college football faithful with eight-game winning streak. During that the only player that the Crimson Tide
large margin in each category. And yet, frustration and disillusion as the often span, the Gators have handled their will have to contain.
the G-men are off to their best start nebulous criteria for selecting teams opponents in convincing fashion, win- Harvin remains a more-than-potent
ever at 11-1. Eli Manning has simply for the national championship game ning by an average 40-point margin. threat to Alabama; every time he has
matured as a quarterback and tossed has left many worthy teams on the One intriguing storyline to this game the ball, he has a chance to take it
away his 6-foot-5 security blanket (six outside looking in. is that of the men wearing headsets deep, and on the season he has 35
Giants have at least 26 receptions), And while the BCS system argu- on the sidelines. Alabama plays for receptions for 595 yards and seven
making Plaxico that much less impor- ably has its shortcomings, nobody has Nick Saban, a former Miami Dolphins touchdowns. With a Gator offense that
tant. And that’s not to mention the fact capitalized on it like the Southeastern experiment who enjoys the luxury of isn’t afraid to direct snap to him or just
that Domenik Hixon has emerged as Conference. The SEC has won four out being one of the highest-paid coaches hand him the ball, Harvin has rushed
a legitimate playmaker, ably replac- of the 10 BCS national championships, in college football, while the Gators for 538 yards and nine touchdowns.
ing Burress on several occasions dur- including the past two won by the counter with two-time National Coach Some other weapons on the Gators’
ing the year and leading the Giants in Florida Gators and the LSU Tigers. In of the Year Urban Meyer. running attack include running backs
yards per catch. addition, SEC teams have won over 70 Among the keys in determining Jeffrey Demps and Chris Rainey. The
But then there’s another side to it. percent of BCS bowl games that they the winner of this pivotal game will two cement the fast-paced, high-scor-
It’s not like Plaxico has had the best have played in. be whether Alabama’s defense has ing offense and have rushed for 654
influences in his own life. He didn’t Part of the SEC’s success stems from enough depth and experience to con- and 529 yards, respectively. The team’s
meet his father until he was 21, and his the sheer strength of the conference. tain Meyer’s spread-style offense. ability to feature four huge running
mother, with whom he was very close, The SEC is considered by many to be The potent attack is led by last year’s threats at any one time on the field can
passed away when he was just 22. After the best conference in college football, Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow create headaches for defenses and may
her death he began living with five and with good reason. At this juncture, at quarterback and features one of be the key in wearing down a usually
of his childhood friends, all of whom with the regular season complete and the most electrifying players in col- stingy Crimson Tide defense.
are now “dead or in jail,” according to conference championship games set lege football in Percy Harvin. There Despite all the hoopla surrounding
Burress. A few months later, Plaxico for this weekend, the SEC boasts some is some concern surrounding the the Gator offensive attack, it remains
was arrested for public intoxication, of the best teams in college football, sprained right ankle that the running no secret that Meyer prides himself
and he realized something needed to including the No. 1 Alabama Crimson back sustained in last weekend’s game on the play of his special teams units.
be done. He moved away from his Tide, the No. 4 Gators, the No. 16 against the Seminoles, however, and There is no bigger catalyst for a swing
friends in an attempt to reform, but Georgia Bulldogs and reigning nation- at this point Harvin remains ques- in momentum in football than a spe-
they continued to do everything they al champion LSU. tionable for Saturday. cial teams play, and even if Alabama
could to pull him back, including writ- Make no mistake: The winner of this Unlike its SEC rival, Alabama has is able to contain the Gators’ high-
ing him letters from prison. But still, Saturday’s showdown at the Georgia been winning games this year because powered offense, it still might not be
Burress managed to put the past in the Dome for the SEC title between of a relentless defense as well as its enough to secure the victory.
past and focus all his efforts into foot- Alabama and Florida will most assur- ability to control the clock and wear Brandon James, the Gators’ punt
ball. In fact, New York owes a great deal edly qualify for the BCS national opponents down with a smash-mouth returner, has already taken two punts
to him. championship game and stand in firm running game. The Crimson Tide’s on- back for touchdowns, and his per-
He turned the Giants from a 6-10 position to earn the designation of the-ground attack has been great as return average of 13.6 yards is good
team into an 11-5 squad in just his first national champion. well, but that only elevates the impor- for second in the nation. Combining
year. He’s led the team in every impor- If the Gators defeat the Crimson Tide tance of subduing the Gators’ own that with the fact that the Gators
tant receiving category every year since in Atlanta, they are essentially a lock to potent attack this weekend. have already blocked eight kicks this
his arrival in 2005, and he’s also kept it move into one of the two top spots in For starters, Florida possesses what season — five punts, two field goals
from missing the playoffs during that the final BCS rankings. With the win, appears to be the best system quarter- and one PAT — shows that Florida’s
time period. In 2007 he didn’t prac- Florida would most likely move to No. back in college history. Tebow poses a special teams corps has become a
1 in both the USA Today and AP Top 25 double threat from under center, pos- formidable threat.
see HECK, page 18 polls and would likely be no lower than sessing the ability to make crisp, accu- This weekend’s SEC showdown
No. 2 in the BCS computer rankings. rate passes under pressure while being will be a close contest pitting a stel-
Both teams are heading into quick and agile enough to scramble lar offense against a stingy defense.
Dave Heck is a junior majoring in phi- Saturday’s SEC tilt riding high off of when the field opens up. Something will have to give, though,
losophy. He can be reached at David.Heck@ convincing victories over big rivals. The On the season thus far, Tebow has because the winner will most likely be
tufts.edu. Crimson Tide shut out their in-state thrown for 2,299 yards and 25 touch- the next national champion.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Alumni have capital time playing in
Washington, D.C., flag football league
FLAG FOOTBALL
continued from page 15
Rosales (LA ’03) said. “I think somehow
we have just started getting more com-
fortable with each other and become a
lot more cohesive.”
Ranked No. 1 in the coaches’ poll, the
Jumbos have been prevailing on both
sides of the ball, holding opponents to
12 points or less in all but two games
this season — including 33-0 and 45-0
thrashings of Pittsburgh and BU, respec-
tively — while scoring more than 20
points in all but two of their contests.
Their toughest test came in their final
regular-season matchup, a clash with
then 7-1 George Washington, which the
Jumbos won 19-16 after stopping nine
straight Colonials plays from inside the
10-yard line.
“It’s just a way to compete with
a bunch of people you can
have that shared experience
at Tufts with. It’s kind of neat
that we can represent Tufts
even though our athletic days
are kind of behind us.”
Bryan Pitko
Tufts alum
With the success the team has enjoyed
this season, fellow Jumbos are coming
out in unprecedented numbers to get in
on the action.
“The success of the team has gotten
a lot more people excited about it, and
that’s why we’ll get 25 people at 8 a.m.
on a Saturday morning,” Rosales said.
“People actually stay in on Friday nights
so that they can get up in the morning
for a flag football game.”
But the team’s popularity has long pre-
ceded its dominance; Tufts has boast-
ed strong numbers from the beginning
despite being teased by Div. I teams for its
size, lack of notoriety and mascot.
“Starting from when I first came out,
I think we had one of the larger show-
ings,” said Marcellus Rolle (LA ’04), a
former Tufts football player who cur-
rently joins MacGregor, Ayers, Jon Japha
(LA ’02) and Dominic Ju (LA ’00) on the
team’s coaching staff. “We were very
represented going into the first season.
We played against Div. I schools — the
Michigans, the Ohio States, the Floridas,
the Georgias — and small little Tufts has
35 people show up per season. That’s
just unheard of.”
The Tufts Daily
For many of its members, the team’s
draw is not hard to understand, as flag
football has been a good way to have fun
and socialize while staying connected to
the greater Tufts community.
“With so many people there, it kind of
seems like a great opportunity to meet
other alumni,” Rolle said. “Usually we
end up talking about the [Patriots]
game or what’s going on back at Tufts
or in Boston. We all have kind of a com-
mon bond.”
“It’s more fun, it’s less formal [than
other alumni events],” said Bryan Pitko
(LA ’03), who was a member of both the
football and track teams while at Tufts.
“It’s just a way to compete with a bunch
of people you can have that shared expe-
rience at Tufts with. It’s kind of neat that
we can represent Tufts even though our
athletic days are kind of behind us.”
After closing out the regular season,
the Jumbos now look toward their first
playoff game, which will take place
this weekend. After receiving a first-
round bye, the Jumbos will likely play
UNC, which they defeated 29-16 ear-
lier this season. But given the nature of
the league, which sees different play-
ers show up for games each week, the
Jumbos can’t take their first opponent
lightly.
“You never know in this league just
because it’s so fluid,” Rosales said.
“Sometimes people don’t show up at
games, so therefore when you play them
on one day, you have no idea if that’s
the best players on the field … At least
against a team we’ve already played, we
do feel fairly confident, but it’s still a
crapshoot.”
If Tufts advances, it will find
itself up against the winner of
George Washington versus James
Madison before potentially heading
into rematches with N.C. State and
Michigan, each of which has knocked
the Jumbos out of contention in tour-
nament play in previous years. Still,
the team is up to the challenge and
ready to extend its winning streak.
“Each year the team that knocked us
out came in second place,” MacGregor
said. “If we’re going to go on and win it,
we’re excited to meet N.C. State in the
Elite Eight and Michigan in the Final
Four. We’ll have to go through teams that
have eliminated us in the past.”
“It’s just like any sports team,” Rolle
said. “You start building momentum,
and we’re excited. We have a great team
and a great coaching staff, and I think
we have a great chance to go really far
in this tournament. We’re going to go
out, play hard, do our best and have
fun. If we do those three things, the sky
is the limit.”
Sports
Despite underdog status, Jumbos
fight way to No. 3 ranking in INCTL
TAEKWONDO
continued from page 15
INCTL.
“The only two teams that consistently
beat us are Cornell and MIT, both of which
have very large teams,” said senior Aaron
Schumacher, the team’s vice president of
tournaments. “It’s an issue of quantity. As
a club, we want to get more membership
… Finishing third for us as the second-
smallest school is a big accomplishment.
The league is considered one of the two
most competitive leagues in the country.”
“The team has really come a friend and former Tufts team member
up through the ranks within time as a personal trainer at a gym and
the past two to three years. also teaching at a local Taekwondo school,
We’ve got a very strong as much as he can.
sense of being the underdog cal ability because [Harb] is very knowl-
because the other schools
that we compete against
are oftentimes three to five
times larger than we are
… Because the odds are
against us, we push each
other harder and fight
harder in competition.”
Austin Worth
senior captain
The club was founded in 1990 by Kevin
Ballou (LA ’94), at the time a freshman
with no experience in martial arts. Since
then, the club has grown to include nearly
100 students at its peak in membership;
the current team consists of 48 members.
Although the Taekwondo Club does
not receive much acknowledgement on
campus for its consistently solid per-
formances, that doesn’t stop the team
from continuing to work hard and suc-
ceed at tournaments.
“We’re actually one of the most success-
ful sports on campus, but we just don’t
get a lot of recognition,” Schumacher
said. “Because we’re a small team, we
may not be able to compete with Cornell
and MIT for first and second place, but
we have the highest medal rate, which
means that we get the highest percent-
age of medals per fighter.
“It’s something to build on,” he added.
“The quality is there — we just need to
work on quantity. The only thing that’s
going to fix that is attracting more mem-
bers to the club.”
17
One solution to that problem has been
the addition of head instructor Mike
Harb, who has brought world-renowned
talent to Tufts since taking the job in 2006.
Harb has worked with the Australian and
American national teams, and his pupils
consider his extensive knowledge of the
sport crucial when it comes to their suc-
cess at tournaments.
“[Harb] brings a wealth of experi-
ence that few people in the country can
match,” Schumacher said. “Having our
coach really raises our chances of doing
well at tournaments.”
Harb came to Tufts three years ago when
asked him to coach. Despite working full
Harb finds time to help the Tufts club out
“[One of our strengths] is our techni-
edgeable about the technical aspects,”
Schumacher said. “Taekwondo is a very
mental sport. A lot of other schools focus
on flashy things, but sometimes they for-
get the basics, and sometimes keeping it
simple is the most effective. Our coach
makes sure we understand what we need
to succeed in a match.”
Senior captain Austin Worth also
attributes some of the team’s success
to the general attitude among the team
members.
“We have a very supportive attitude
within the team,” Worth said. “We try really
hard to help each other improve and push
each other.”
Coming from a smaller school with no
funding and little clout among the col-
legiate Taekwondo leagues, the Tufts team
often feels underestimated, which fuels
this work-hard attitude.
“The team has really come up through
the ranks within the past two to three
years,” Worth said. “We’ve got a very strong
sense of being the underdog because the
other schools that we compete against are
oftentimes three to five times larger than
we are … Because the odds are against
us, we push each other harder and fight
harder in competition.”
With all if the club’s success, its mem-
bers still maintain that one of the most
rewarding aspects of being on the team is
the camaraderie and socialization outside
of competition.
“The attitude and style in which we
conduct training is up to us, and it appeals
to a lot of the students because it’s infor-
mal, but at the same time we want to push
ourselves,” Worth said. “It lends itself to us
being a tighter social group versus being
just a team. We hang out outside of prac-
tices and see each other as friends — not
just teammates.”

StatISTICS | Standings SCHEDULE | Dec. 4 - Dec. 8
THU FRI SAT SUN MON

Men's Basketball Women's Basketball Ice Hockey

(3-2, 0-0 NESCAC) (4-1, 0-0 NESCAC) (1-3-0, 0-2-0 NESCAC) Men’s vs. Plymouth St. at MIT
Basketball 7 p.m. 2 p.m.
NESCAC OVERALL NESCAC OVERALL
NESCAC OVERALL
W L W L W L W L W L T W L T
Amherst 0 Colby 2 0 2 2 1 Women’s vs. Colby-
Amherst 0 0 4 0 0 6 0 0 Sawyer
Bates 0 0 Bates 0 0 3 1 Middlebury 2 0 0 4 0 0 Basketball
3 1 2 p.m.
Bowdoin 0 0 5 1 Bowdoin 0 0 3 2 Williams 2 0 0 3 1 0
Colby 0 0 4 1 Bowdoin 1 0 1 3 0 1 vs. New
Colby 0 0 3 3 vs. St. Anselm England
Conn. Coll 0 0 3 3 Conn. Coll 0 0 0 5 Amherst 1 1 0 2 2 0 Ice Hockey 7 p.m. College
Middlebury 0 0 5 2 Middlebury 0 0 4 3 Hamilton 1 1 0 1 1 0 3:30 p.m.
Trinity 0 0 2 4 Trinity 0 0 5 0 Trinity 1 1 0 2 2 0
Tufts 0 0 4 1 Wesleyan 1 1 0 1 3 0 Men’s at MIT at MIT
Tufts 0 0 3 2 Invitational Invitational
Wesleyan 0 3 2 0 Swimming and
Wesleyan 0 0 0 4 0 0 4 1 Conn. Coll. 0 2 7 p.m. 11 a.m./5 p.m.
Diving
Williams 0 0 5 2 Williams 0 0 2 4 Tufts 0 2 0 1 3 0

Individual Statistics Women’s at MIT at MIT

Individual Statistics Individual Statistics Swimming and Invitational Invitational
G A Pts. 11 a.m./5 p.m.
PPG RPG APG PPG RPG APG Diving 7 p.m.
Tom Derosa 2 3 5
Jon Pierce 22.4 8.6 1.0 Colleen Hart 15.2 4.4 4.8
Nick Resor 3 0 3
Aaron Gallant 12.0 1.8 1.0 Julia Bailey 14.4 8.0 1.8 Indoor Track
Lindsay Walker 1 2 3 Husky Carnival
Dave Beyel 11.6 3.8 2.2 K. Tausanovitch 9.2 4.8 1.2 and Field
Mike Vitale 0 2 2 at Northeastern
A. Quezada 11.0 0.5 1.0 Kim Moynihan 8.6 3.2 2.2
Cory Korchin 0 2 2
Matt Galvin 7.4 3.0 5.0 Casey Sullivan 7.0 2.4 0.6
Dylan Cooper 0 2 2
James Long 5.4 3.8 0.2 Rachel Figaro 6.0 5.4 1.0
Matt Amico 0 2 2 Men’s at Amherst at MIT
Dan Cook 5.4 2.0 0.2 Lindsay Weiner 5.0 1.0 0.6
Joe Milo 1 0 1 Squash 6 p.m. 11:30 a.m.
Tom Selby 3.8 4.6 0.8 Katie Wholey 2.8 0.2 0.4
Andy Davis 1 0 1
Reed Morgan 2.6 2.2 1.6 Stacy Filocco 2.8 0.8 0.8
Zach Diaco 1 0 1
Sam Mason 2.4 3.6 1.0 Kate Barnosky 2.7 1.3 1.3
Team 10 15 25
Brian Lowry 1.6 1.4 0.2 Vanessa Miller 2.6 1.8 1.8 Women’s
at Amherst
Peter Saba 1.2 2.0 0.6 Katie Puishys 2.4 1.6 0.4 Squash 6 p.m.
Goalkeeping S GA S%
Max Cassidy 1.0 1.3 0.5 Issy Cless 2.0 0.0 0.0
Scott Barchard 101 13 .886
Jay McNamara 25 4 .862
Team 81.4 40.5 14.8 Team 79.4 34.6 17.4 Team 126 18
Men’s Women’s
.875 Jumbocast Basketball Basketball
18 The Tufts Daily Sports
Heck says fans should give
Burress a second chance
HECK
continued from page 16
tice once during the season
because of a yearlong ankle
injury — but he still managed
to suit up as the Giants’ No.
1 receiver in every game. Oh,
and did I mention he caught
the game-winning pass in the
Super Bowl?
Maybe he’s never been
the best character guy, but
it’s not like he’s ever been
Jeremy Shockey, either. With
the exception of his holdout
last year (and considering the
year that he had, the money
that other top-end receivers
received and the non-guaran-
teed nature of NFL contracts,
I don’t blame him), he’s always
attended training and mini-
camps, even when they weren’t
mandatory. You can see him
joking with Eli on the sidelines
The Folk Song Society of Greater Boston and Revels Inc. present before a game, actively trying
to maintain a positive rela-
Sheila Kay Adams
tionship with his quarterback,
and his impressive stats have
always been a complement to
the Giants’ success, not the
Traditional songs and spellbinding stories from other way around.
the Appalachian Mountains So where does this leave us?
Like I said before, I don’t know.
Sheila Kay Adams is a traditional ballad singer, Plaxico obviously made a very
poor decision, but I don’t think
musician, Appalachian humorist, published author, that should necessarily define
and master storyteller. him or ruin his career. He’s
Sat., Dec. 6, 2008, 8pm
St. John’s Church, 80 Mt. Auburn St, Watertown (#71 bus)
$10 Students & FSSGB Members Colby-Sawyer will be Jumbos’
$15 General Admission
final opponent of first semester
www.fssgb.org - info@fssgb.org
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural continued from page 15
Council, a state agency. two games,” Miller said. “We’ve
gotten away from some things
that, in the past, we’ve consid-
ered to be our strongest suit,
and that’s our defense. Giving
up 81 points to Brandeis, giving
up 62 points to Salem State, we
just haven’t proven ourselves as
a defensive team.”
Behind a second-half charge
in which they outscored
the Jumbos 35-27, the Lady
The Holidays Are Here! Vikings managed to turn what
appeared to be a runaway Tufts
win into a tight contest. Salem
à Get in the habit of calling the University Police to report all suspicious State needed just the first 5:05
persons and activities on campus. of the second half to turn a
12-point halftime deficit into
à Remember to plan a safe route of travel when going to your car or the T. a 41-41 deadlock, culminating
in a game-tying three-pointer
from Salem State junior forward
à Everyone should be aware of what is going on around them. Katie Bielonko.
But the Lady Vikings never
à Enjoy a happy holiday season – use common sense. claimed the lead, as the Jumbos
responded with a 17-4 run that
à The Tufts University Police can be reached for emergencies at X66911 or put the game out of reach. Eight
points during that stretch came
617-636-6911 (Boston), 617-627-6911 (Medford), 508-839-5303 (Grafton). from sophomore guard Lindsay
Weiner, who played 22 minutes
à Impress upon your fellow employees and students the importance of crime off the bench while senior co-cap-
prevention. tain Kim Moynihan nursed a sore
Achilles. Weiner finished with a
career-high 10 points, all of which
à Never walk in areas that are secluded or dimly lit.
came the second half.
“We have 17 people on our
à Guard your valuables – lock your office, lab, or dormitory room when you roster, and we go very deep, and
leave. the nice thing about that is that
on any given day, anyone can
à Stopping a crime before it happens is everyone’s business. step up and do what needs to
be done,” Miller said. “Lindsay
so far has done a great job. She
à Lock all windows and doors, activate security alarms and pull down saved us [on Tuesday].”
shades. The Lady Vikings did not go
quietly, however, taking advan-
tage of an anemic Tufts assault
that left the door open for them
The Tufts University Police, Department of Public Safety, would like to wish all of to climb back again. While the
you a happy and safe holiday season. Jumbos managed just three field
goals over the final 8:15, Salem
State mounted a spirited come-
back, led by its honorable-men-
tion preseason All-American,
Danielle Jenkins. The junior
center completed a convention-
al three-point play at the 1:18
mark to bring her team within
two, on a night in which she tal-
lied a game-high 28 points. But
a pair of clutch buckets in the
Thursday, December 4, 2008
had a life that most of us can’t
comprehend, and he’s become
familiar with hostile envi-
ronments. Can anyone really
blame him for carrying a gun?
And even if you think what he
did is detestable, isn’t he at
least as deserving of a second
chance as anyone else?
Then again, there’s no reason
he should be exempt from the
law. He’s a professional athlete
and nothing more: If he broke
the law, he should have to pay
the consequences like anybody
else. And that’s exactly what it
looks like he’ll have to do.
Giving the eulogy at his
mother’s funeral, Plaxico
said that the three lessons
she taught him in life were to
never take anything for grant-
ed, to treat others how you
want to be treated and that
God never puts anything in
front of you that you can’t han-
dle. I just hope he can handle
what’s coming next; it won’t be
like any football defense, any
media scrutiny or any chal-
lenge that he’s faced before.
As a fan who appreciates all
he’s done for my team and who
refuses to judge him before
the judicial system does, I
wish Burress all the luck in the
world. He’s going to need it if
he values his freedom.
final minute by Tufts freshman
forward Rachel Figaro iced the
victory for the Jumbos.
“Give credit to Salem State:
They came out in the second
half and took it to us,” Berube
said. “Their All-American played
a great game, and some of their
role players did as well. They
got in a 2-3 zone, and we forgot
how to pass to each other, we
forgot how to attack, and they
got back into the game. Down
the stretch, we finally got com-
posed and made plays when we
needed to; but overall, I don’t
think any of us are too pleased
with the effort, with the focus,
with the things we talk about on
a day to day basis; To be a great
team, this can’t happen.”
Sophomore point guard
Colleen Hart paced Tufts with 19
points, 12 of which came during
a first half in which the Jumbos
led by as many as 14. Figaro,
meanwhile, had a productive 21
minutes off the bench, tallying
six points and seven rebounds.
Tufts will play one more
game — a Saturday afternoon
tilt against non-conference foe
Colby-Sawyer in Cousens Gym
— before taking a three-week
layoff for final exams and the
holidays. The contest will mark
the Jumbos’ fourth matchup
against a team that appeared
in the NCAA Tournament last
year. While its subpar play
and challenging early-season
schedule have made for a
bumpy first semester, Tufts is
eager to enter the break on a
positive note.
“I think we all recognize that
we’re considered a pretty good
basketball team and that we’re
expected to win a lot of the games
we play, so just going in and get-
ting a win against Colby-Sawyer
is not going to be sufficient for
us,” Miller said. “We want to go
into winter break being confi-
dent in the kind of team we are,
knowing that we have the inten-
sity to play with the best and
that we can go through rough
patches and bounce back from
them. We want to bounce back
in a convincing way.”
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Housing
Available for Lease
One 7BR. Two family, whole house
- two kitchen, two bath. Free
washer and dryer, parking. Call
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One 6BR in great shape. Two
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Various 4BR, some almost right
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very quickly. ACT NOW! Call 617-
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3 Bedroom, very close to cam-
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Common room, big kitchen, park-
ing - ACT NOW, WONT LAST. Call
617-448-6233
The Tufts Daily
Housing
Somerville (Teele Ave) Close to
Campus! Available June 1st.
4 Bed, 1 Bath on 1st and 2nd floor
of owner occupied 2 family house
- 10 min walk to Davis Sq. and T.
Fully furnished kitchen, living room,
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rent/security deposit required. Call
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Sports 19
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classifieds policy All Tufts students must submit classifieds in person, prepaid with check, money order, or exact cash
only. All classifieds submitted by mail must be accompanied by a check. Classifieds are $10 per week with Tufts ID or $20 per
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overly sexual nature, or are used expressly to denigrate a person or group. Questions? Email business@tuftsdaily.com.

Editors' Challenge | Week 14

Let this be a lesson to you all, boys and girls: Yes, cheating really does pay.
With an 11-6 week fueled by picks that (as usual) quite closely resemble the
picks of her nearest competitors, Rachel “11x17” Dolin has once again made a
small step forward as she chases her first Eds’ Challenge title. Now comes the final
weekend.
Do or die.
By putting forth a competent 10-7 performance in Week 13 (editor’s note: there
were 17 games because we had yet to count the pre-Thanksgiving Monday night
game), Phil “Don’t Choke Now” Dear has stayed ever-so-slightly in control of a
two-game lead on the rest of the field. Dolin stays two games back, and two games
behind her are the two remaining female editors, Carly “Heir-head Apparent”
Helfand and Sapna “Rise and Shine” Bansil.
The window is closing on Evans “Udderly Mooving” Clinchy, whose 10-7 week was
not enough to put a dent in the girls’ leads. Tom “Okayhaveagoodoneseeyoulaterbye”
Eager is going out with a bang — with a 12-5 performance over the Turkey Day
break, he now holds firm control of sixth place, vaulting way, way ahead of Dave
“Don’t Judge, Lest Ye Be Judged” Heck.
Noah “Schu-Mermaid” has emerged from under the sea to tie Heck for seventh
place, putting a country mile between himself and Scott “Serious... Scrupulous...
Whatever” Janes, who hates cheating only when it’s convenient to do so (not to
say that he did that this week or anything).
After a successful showing last week from Rob “On the Way Out” Silverblatt, the
guest-picking torch is passed to his fellow managing board member, Kristin “FA-
IL!” Gorman.

Phil Rachel Carly Sapna Evans Tom Dave Noah Scott GUEST
OVERALL RECORD 127-64 125-66 123-68 123-68 122-69 116-75 113-78 113-78 106-85 Kristin
LAST WEEK 10-7 11-6 8-9 10-7 10-7 12-5 9-8 11-6 11-6 Gorman

Oakland at San Diego San Diego San Diego San Diego San Diego San Diego San Diego San Diego Oakland San Diego San Diego
Jacksonville at Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago
Cleveland at Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee
Philadelphia at NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants
Minnesota at Detroit Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota
Houston at Green Bay Houston Houston Green Bay Houston Green Bay Green Bay Houston Houston Houston Houston
Atlanta at New Orleans Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta New Orleans Atlanta New Orleans New Orleans
Cincinnati at Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis
Miami at Buffalo Miami Miami Buffalo Miami Miami Miami Miami Buffalo Buffalo Miami
New England at Seattle New England New England New England New England New England New England New England New England New England New England
Kansas City at Denver Denver Denver Denver Denver Denver Denver Denver Denver Kansas City Denver
NY Jets at San Francisco NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets
St. Louis at Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona
Dallas at Pittsburgh Dallas Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Dallas Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Dallas
Washington at Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore Washington Washington Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore
Tampa Bay at Carolina Tampa Bay Carolina Carolina Carolina Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Tampa Bay
20 The Tufts Daily Advertisement Thursday, December 4, 2008