2008-09-02

THE TUFTS DAILY

Mostly Sunny 77/58

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

VOLUME LVI, NUMBER 2

Where You Read It First Est. 1980 TUFTSDAILY.COM

Tufts to RIAA: some identities off-limits

Matriculation ceremony welcomes Class of 2012 to the Hill

by

Matt Repka

Daily Staff Writer

aalok kanani/tufts daily

Festivities greeted the 1,303 freshmen that matriculated on Wednesday. Daily photographers snapped into action, catching photos of the Matriculation ceremony (above), Wednesday night’s welcome celebration, where BlackOut performed (right) and the Candle-Lighting Ceremony on Friday. See Captured on page 11 for a photo spread. JO duara/tufts daily

Administration, TCU Senate await insurance money by

Rob Silverblatt

Daily Editorial Board

Seven years after funds began disappearing from Tufts accounts, allegedly making their way into the pockets of two administrators, an insurance check may be within reach for the university and affected student groups. This comes amid general doubt that former employees Jodie Nealley and Ray Rodriguez will be able to pay restitution to the university if convicted of embezzlement. Annie Wong, the Office EMBEZZLEMENT for Campus Life’s busiCASE ness manager, and Matt Shapanka, the Tufts Community Union treasurer, said that they had been told that the university could receive an insurance payout by the end of the month. “That’s all I heard, sometime in September we might get our money,” Wong said. Other university officials have confirmed that the administration filed a claim in November, but they have declined to confirm any specific timetable for when the money will get to Tufts. They have also refused to provide the Daily with the name of the insurance company Tufts is using or the amount of money they are expecting. The insurance company is now conducting an investigation and its progress will determine when and if the payout arrives, according to Senior University Counsel Dickens Mathieu. see INSURANCE, page 2 For students’ reactions to the embezzlement scandal and a report on a haunting embezzlement case from the past, turn to Features, page 5.

New law: schools must crack down on file sharing Colleges and universities nationwide may soon step up anti-piracy efforts after a new bill was signed into law earlier this month. Two provisions in a national education bill passed this summer require any institution of higher education receiving federal funding to commit to combatting illegal file sharing on campus. The College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2008, which President Bush signed into law on Aug. 14, extends and amends the Higher Education Act of 1965. The new law states that in order to receive federal funds, which Tufts does, colleges and universities must demonstrate that they have “developed plans to effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including through the use of a variety of technology-based deterrents.” For students nationwide, this could translate into increased monitoring of network activities, and it could force colleges to actively crack down on file sharing – even without outside pressure from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The law’s other file-sharing provision mandates that schools “offer alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property” by doing things like providing or promoting legal downloading services like Rhapsody, Ruckus or iTunes.

The passage of the act is a victory for the RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America, both of which lobbied to have the anti-piracy language in the bill. In a public statement issued after the bill passed the U.S. Senate by an overwhelming 83-8 margin, MPAA President Dan Glickman praised the Senate’s decision. “By including these important provisions in the Higher Education Act, Congress is sending a strong message that intellectual property is worth protecting,” he said. Because of the bill’s open-ended language, the real-world effects of these provisions could turn out to be dramatic or inconsequential, depending on each school’s interpretation and enforcement of the provisions. Tufts already “offers alternatives to illegal downloading” on a University Information Technology Web site, which lists eight legal online music sources, including emusic, iTunes and Ruckus. —by Matt Repka

Tufts has challenged the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) investigation into two cases of illegal file sharing, saying that the industry lacks sufficient evidence to implicate specific students. But the move does not amount to a sweeping rebuke of the RIAA’s lawsuits against students, and the school is “actively investigating” improvements to its network in order to avoid confusion when identifying violators, according to Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler. The RIAA, meanwhile, will not pursue legal action in the two cases to which Tufts objected. The association filed a subpoena on July 9 against 11 Tufts students as part of its nationwide anti-piracy campaign, much of which targets illegal file sharing on college campuses nationwide. The RIAA says it linked the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the 11 unidentified students, or “John Does,” to illegally shared copyrighted material. The plaintiff in the Tufts suit is the Zomba Label Group, a distributor of many large music labels, including Jive and LaFace Records. In Zomba v. Does 1-11, the RIAA filed a subpoena requesting that the university provide the identities of the users of 11 IP addresses on the school’s network. Known as the “discovery” process, this step is standard procedure in RIAA lawsuits. Once a network user’s identity is matched to the IP address, the alleged infringer’s personal information can be turned over to the RIAA, which may bring a lawsuit against the newly identified user. But in a July 28 letter to Judge Nancy Gertner of the Massachusetts District Court, Tufts’ Vice President of University Relations Mary Jeka protested that in two of the 11 cases, the technical limitations of the Tufts network would require the school to release the identities of multiple candidates, most of whom would be unconnected to the infringements. The university uses two systems to “attempt to match an ... [IP] address to a Media Access Control [MAC] address,” Thurler told the Daily in an e-mail. A MAC address is a sort of serial number identifying a computer, and it is useful because IP addresses are reused by different computers. The MAC addresses, unlike the IPs, are see MUSIC, page 2

Library updates Web site, adds more Word by

Michael Del Moro Daily Editorial Board

Tisch Library now has Microsoft Office on every reference-area computer, a revamped Web site and stronger wireless Internet capabilities, thanks to a series of summer updates. Student input last semester triggered many of the changes, according to Jo-Ann Michalak, the library’s director. The library Web site’s redesign focused on centralizing information, and Michalak said the architects took many cues from TuftsLife.com, which was also given a facelift this summer. “We designed our previous page a couple see LIBRARY, page 2

Inside this issue

Aalok Kanani/Tufts Daily

All computers in Tisch Library’s reference area are now equipped with Microsoft Office, and the library has 35 more wireless access points than it did last year.

Today’s Sections

One American college shows that tuition doesn’t have to be a financial hindrance.

SMFA showcases photographer Díaz’s innovative kite-high camera technique.

see FEATURES, page 5

see ARTS, page 9

News Features Arts & Living Editorial | Letters

1 5 9 12

Op-Ed Comics Sports

13 15 Back

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The Tufts Daily

News

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Makeover to complement summer’s technological updates in Tisch Library LIBRARY

continued from page 1

years ago and lots of things have changed every year, and secondly, we actually took the time, this time, to interview students,” Michalak said. “We found that we use[d] misleading or non-understood terminology, the arrangement was hard, navigation was a pain in the neck,” she added, explaining that the Web site is now more streamlined with a new “identity” and focused look. The highlight of the new site is the “database multi-search” feature, according to Michalak. The feature, located in a search box in the center of the screen, provides students with the ability to search all databases to which the library subscribes. In the past, the site did not have an all-encompassing database search feature, and students were required to search different databases individually or in predetermined groups. Eventually, students will be able to create their own database groups. Matthew Salzberg, a junior, liked the idea of a centralized database search feature. In the past, “it’s always been confusing looking for the correct database,” he said. In another sweeping change, all computers in the library’s first-floor reference area now have Microsoft Office, a software package that includes Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint. “The idea is that when you’re here in the library doing your research, having to go bring your own laptop or check a laptop loaner out or go to the Eaton [Hall computer] lab is a pain in the neck,” Michalak said. Previously, only four of the computers in the library’s reference area had Microsoft Office. The library also expanded the amount of wireless access points in the building, more than quadrupling the previous number. Last semester, students were often frustrated by wireless outages at Tisch. One spate came when the library was crammed with students cramming for midterms on March 6. According to Michalak, the previous amount of access points — between eight and 10, she approximated — was not sufficient during times of heavy Internet usage. There are now an additional 35 access

points, she said. “The wireless dropped out all the time,” Salzberg said, referring to spotty Internet service last semester. The library also plans to add several Macintosh computers to the building, according to Michalak, although she did not give a timeframe. Tufts Community Union Senate Associate Treasurer Lauren Levine, a sophomore, praised the library’s updates. “I think adding wireless access points is a great step to making the library an academic resource for students on campus. Today we really can’t do our work and study without the Internet,” said Levine, who co-chairs the Senate’s Special Projects Committee. “I’m really impressed with all of the library’s updates and changes. I think one of the best things about our library is that they are so responsive to what our students want and need.” In addition to the many technological changes at Tisch, another major summer update is still underway on the roof above students’ heads. The redesigning of the library roof should be completed by the end of November, according to Michalak. The new roof will feature outdoor seating areas and an abstract design. Michalak said that the end date is slightly behind its original target, which was the start of this semester. “I think that even though it’s been a long process … it’ll be worth the wait to have such a multi-faceted place on campus like the library roof,” Levine said. The Graduate Student Council at Tufts recently honored the library’s work in responding to students’ needs with a special award called the Graduate Student Council Service Award, according to Michalak. “Tisch Library has shown time and time again that it sees graduate students as an important and vital constituency that should be listened to,” the award reads.

tuftsdaily.com A blog on library changes went up last week. Check out the Daily’s campus news blog, The Hill, at www.tuftsdaily.com/blog/thehill

Technical difficulties complicate charges MUSIC

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specific to individual users. One of the university’s two systems, the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), issues IP addresses to individual network cards and links IPs with MAC addresses. But Tufts only stores its DHCP cache for 10 days. The second system, the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), separately records the first and last known times when a given MAC address uses an IP address. But there may be gaps — sometimes during which the illegal file sharing occurred — when a MAC-IP pair does not match the latest ARP record. The ARP cache is kept for an extended period of time, but it “cannot tie a specific user to a specific MAC address at a specific time,” Jeka wrote in her letter. This imprecision raises legitimate questions about the culpability of the accused students, according to Jeka. In the case of the IP address of one of the John Does in this lawsuit, there are as many as 23 possible users who fit the description of having accessed the system at the time the alleged infringement took place. For another address, there are 17 possible suspects. “We believe, in these two instances, that it would be unfair to identify all possible individuals meeting the plaintiffs’ criteria, given the low likelihood of identifying the guilty party,” Jeka said in the letter. She cited the need to protect the families of students, “spar[ing] them from any undue distress.” Zomba’s legal counsel has since advised Tufts that Zomba will drop the request for the two IP addresses in question. The university refused to release the names of all of the potential suspects, Thurler said, because the university “is concerned about protecting innocent parties.”

But she warned that protecting innocent students does not amount to condoning illegal file sharing. “[Tufts] does not support students who break federal copyright laws and will not protect such students from the consequences of those actions,” she said. Of the nine remaining students subpoenaed by the RIAA, “several” have already elected to settle out of court and avoid lawsuits, Thurler said. Agreeing to a settlement with the RIAA typically means paying thousands of dollars in damages. If any students do not elect to settle up front, they will have their names turned over to the RIAA on Sept. 8. The RIAA will likely pursue legal action against those students at that time. Since February 2007, the RIAA has turned up the heat on U.S. college students, whose illegal sharing habits far outstrip those of typical Internet users. “Unfortunately, college students are stealing music at an alarmingly high rate,” Liz Kennedy, a spokesperson for the RIAA, told the Daily in an e-mail. Kennedy said the RIAA has sent over 7,000 “pre-litigation settlement letters” to schools since the start of the crackdown. More than half of the students receiving such a notice have elected to settle. The prevalence of legal alternatives leaves few excuses for students caught illegally sharing music, Kennedy said. “Every student in the country has access to affordable, legal music through innovative music industry-supported models like … Ruckus, Last.fm, and iMeem, to name a few. “Why take the risk [of] getting in trouble [and] facing a lawsuit or paying fines with so many legal options?” she continued. The RIAA has publicly stated that since 2004, when it first took legal action against sharers, music piracy has “stabilized,“ see RIAA, page 3

Courtesy WBZ-TV

Ray Rodriguez

Jodie Nealley

Insurance company investigates claim INSURANCE

“We’ve met with the insurance company and provided them with documentation to support the claim,” he said. “Now the insurance company has to evaluate the claim before it will either come back with more questions or its position on coverage.” Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler said the university has a policy that covers crimes, including embezzlement. She would not go into further detail. Thomas McGurty, the university’s treasurer and vice president for finance, would not comment on whether he is confident that any money will come in, citing an inability to speculate. Still, Assistant Director of Public Relations Suzanne Miller said that the university has filed to recover “the full amount of the loss.” Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone’s office puts that number at $977,449. Mathieu’s office helped file the insurance claim along with Director of Risk Management and Insurance David Slater, who could not be reached for comment. Meanwhile, Leone’s office has indicted Nealley and Rodriguez on larceny charges. Jessica Venezia, a spokesperson for Leone, said that it is standard in such cases to ask defendants to pay restitution if convicted. “So yes, we would request it as a term of probation,” she said. But sources within the university are not holding their breath. “The chances are that they can’t pay,” said Marc Miller, the director of administration and finance for the School of Arts and Sciences. Shapanka said that he would like to see them repay the university, but that his main concern is seeing money returned to student groups, whatever the source. “I think that from the standpoint of right and wrong, yes, they should pay up,” he said. “But from a practical standpoint, I want to make sure that the students get what they deserve, whether it’s from Jodie and Ray’s pockets or from the insurance company.” As the criminal proceedings against Nealley and Rodriguez go forward, it remains unclear how closely the insurance company will be watching. Mathieu said the insurance claim is separate from the outcome of the trial and that the payout would not necescontinued from page 1

sarily have to wait until after a verdict is rendered. Leonard Fisher (A ’48), an insurance attorney in Brookline, agreed that Tufts may not have to stand in line while Leone’s office prosecutes the pair. “If Tufts proves its loss, then [the company] can settle with Tufts immediately,” he said. But some are not convinced that the money will reach the Hill quickly if the proceedings against Nealley and Rodriguez drag on. Miller, the director of administration and finance, said that to his understanding the insurance company will be interested in seeing how the criminal charges play out. “I think everything is pending on the outcome of the trial,” he said. Still, he said that he expects the university to collect regardless of the verdict. “We have our insurance policy and the insurance policy will cover [the losses],” he said. Regardless of when the insurance company makes the payment, it may decide to pursue Nealley and Rodriguez through the civil courts to get its money back, according to Fisher. Tufts may also have the option to go after Nealley and Rodriguez via the same route, but Miller, the assistant PR director, said that university officials have not reached any decision about whether to seek restitution outside of the criminal proceedings. The university filed its initial claim the same month Nealley was fired for embezzlement. She is charged with taking money generated from the Student Activities Fee, as well as with skimming revenue brought in by groups such as Tufts Student Resources. In November, the university said the amount of stolen funds amounted to around $300,000. A more thorough investigation later implicated Rodriguez, and the total jumped to nearly $1 million. According to McGurty, the treasurer, the university has kept the insurance company up-to-date about the changing number. While it remains unclear when Tufts will get a final answer from the company, Fisher said that providers have an incentive to hand out relatively fast payoffs in order to keep policyholders happy. “If they want to keep the account, then they could settle with Tufts earlier,” Fisher said.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Editor’s Note In keeping with Daily tradition, we will put out newspapers every other day for the first two weeks of the semester. We will revert to our normal, daily printing schedule on Monday, Sept. 15. Many thanks for bearing with us.

“[He] also weighed about 300 pounds. He pleaded the Twinkie case and said he got irritated losing weight.” Sol Gittleman university professor see page 5

The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

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News

Civic research center comes to Tisch College by

Nina Ford

Daily Editorial Board

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), a research organization that studies the activism and civic involvement of young people, moved this summer to Tufts’ Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service from the University of Maryland. The Tisch College also added a new research division this summer, and brought in CIRCLE director Peter Levine as its research director. The center relocated from the University of Maryland, College Park, which housed CIRCLE at the university’s School of Public Policy since the center’s creation in 2001, to Tufts on July 1. Tisch originally approached CIRCLE with the offer to move to here. Tisch College Dean Robert Hollister initiated the conversation. “I think it was a natural marriage because Tisch is, Tufts is, such a significant leader in the area of civic engagement and CIRCLE is really a premier course of research about civic learning and citizen participation,” Hollister said. Tufts is looking to expand its emphasis on research, Hollister said, and CIRCLE will add to the university’s growing focus on research. CIRCLE is best known for calculating the youth-voter turnout in U.S. elections, according to Levine. The press uses CIRCLE as its main source for these statistics, and the center produces fact sheets for public policymakers and journalists. CIRCLE has a broader mission, however. The center studies “young people’s civic participation, which includes voting but also includes a lot of other activities, such as volunteering and activism,” Levine said. Now that CIRCLE is based at Tufts, Levine said the center will begin to get involved in the surrounding area. Programs and experiments, previously conducted in Maryland, will be carried out in the Boston area. Since CIRCLE arrived at Tufts this summer, the organization and Levine have done preliminary work on several studies and initiatives that will be conducted by the center

Jo Duara/Tufts Daily

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement arrived at the Tisch College this summer. in Tisch College. Levine has already secured a grant that will be used to create an organization called the Boston Area Social Network, which will allow college students to “collaborate on their community change and community service work,” Hollister said. The Corporation for National and Community Service will fund the grant, providing $570,000 over a threeyear period. Another CIRCLE project is the study of civic participation among young adults who do not attend college — a group of people who have received less attention than their collegiate peers, Hollister said. This new project began at the University of Maryland with funding from the Charles F. Kettering Foundation. CIRCLE will provide a new resource for students and faculty on Tufts’ campus, Levine said. The center has already worked with several professors in the political science and sociology departments, according to Levine. One such collaboration evaluated differ-

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ent types of survey methods. CIRCLE will also help to provide “assistance to faculty who are preparing grant applications or preparing next steps with their research,” Hollister said. Student initiatives, such as Tufts Votes and the Institute of Political Citizenship, will be able to utilize CIRCLE. Although there are currently no job openings for Tufts students at CIRCLE, Levine anticipates that there will be opportunities for student research at the center. “Research on civic engagement is vital for increasing understanding of the bases of healthy, positive development among today’s adolescents and young adults,” Professor of Child Development Richard Lerner said in a press release. “Having CIRCLE here will be a great resource for the research that my colleagues, students, and I conduct. In fact, CIRCLE will be an invaluable asset for all Tufts faculty concerned with the health and welfare of contemporary youth and with their role in civil society.”

Student says suits won’t stop sharing RIAA

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with the number of illegal sharers edging slightly upward from 7 million in 2003 to 7.8 million in 2008. During this time, the number of U.S. broadband connections has soared from 38 million to 80 million. Kennedy added that “bringing lawsuits [against individuals] was never the music industry’s first choice. … We are trying to do all we can — most importantly, to offer exciting legal options — to encourage fans to enjoy music legally.” Jonathan Evans, a Tufts sophomore, disagrees. Evans, who established the Tufts Direct Connect filesharing system last year, shut down the service after a warning from UIT that outsiders could potentially discover and punish its users. For Evans, who established Direct Connect in the hopes of using it to legally distribute un-copyrighted music, the RIAA’s tactics may deter some music pirates, but they also have a “huge negative impact on legal Internet use” as well. The specter of piracy, more specifically anti-piracy litigation, has endangered “legitimate distribution channels” such as BitTorrent, as well as “forward-thinking online businesses like Pandora,” the innovative but embattled Internet radio service, he said. Evans also questioned the efficacy of legal action as a piracy deterrent. “The RIAA will not be able to stop file sharing by spreading fear of legal repercussions,” he said. Kennedy agrees that some piracy is inevitable. “We’re realistic that we cannot catch every single person [stealing music],” but legal action is “a small piece of a large puzzle” encouraging fans to obtain music legally, she said.

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Nealley, Rodriguez case is not first of its kind at Tufts

A quarter-century later, scandal revisited by

Carrie Battan

Daily Editorial Board

This is the first in a two-part series in which the Daily looks back 25 years at a case in which a faculty member at the Tufts Medical School embezzled thousands of dollars from the university to fund his ongoing affair with a prostitute and then murdered her. This piece will outline the details of the scandal; the second will compare its effect on the Tufts community to that of Jodie Nealley and Ray Rodriguez’s case. When Jodie Nealley, then the director of student activities, was fired in November under suspicion that she embezzled around $300,000 from the university, a ripple of shock sent the administration and the Tufts Community Union Senate scrambling to reorganize and recover. Prosecutors threw a second punch this summer when they announced that Ray Rodriguez, who served as the budget and fiscal coordinator under Nealley, stole over $600,000. The duo’s alleged theft constituted what seemed to be a once-in-a-lifetime scandal at Tufts. But what if they had committed murder? On paper, Dr. William H. Douglas led a charmed life: Married with three children, the highly-educated scientist served as the head of the Tufts University Medical School’s Cell Culture Research Unit and was regarded as brilliant by his colleagues. But the same dedication and persistence that kept Douglas awake late into the night churning out lab work would bring about an obsessive extramarital relationship with a much younger Boston prostitute, her murder, and his eventual long-term imprisonment. University Professor Sol Gittleman, who was Tufts’ provost when the story broke, said he remembers it unraveling slowly, beginning with the discovery by an internal audit that Douglas was carefully skimming university funds. He was using these funds, it was later discovered, to pay for cocaine and the lifestyle of his mistress, Robin Benedict, who was 21 at the time. “We found that Bill Douglas had been stealing small amounts of money in $25 increments and signing them over … to his lab assistant,” Gittleman said. “At that time, you could do $25 petty cash receipts and not have any signature.” Douglas, who was up for a promotion at the time, had his case brought before the university and was consequently forced to resign from his position. He had already taken thousands of dollars. “It was the administration that found him,” Gittleman said. “We

nailed him.” With no source of money to finance his ongoing relationship with Benedict, who worked as both a graphic artist and prostitute in downtown Boston, Douglas watched as his girlfriend turned tricks and met up with other men in order to earn money. Gittleman said he spoke with Douglas personally after the university had charged him with embezzlement. “I remember asking him, ‘Are you still seeing this woman?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ He hadn’t killed her yet,” Gittleman said. Benedict, who was continuing to see other men, reportedly visited Douglas one evening in March 1983, a visit from which she never returned. Her disappearance led to a lengthy and complex investigation pieced together by the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office. John Kivlan, then the assistant district attorney for Norfolk County and now the special sheriff there, was assigned to prosecute the case. He said that small bits of evidence were essential: DNA testing hadn’t yet been developed, and Benedict’s body was never found. “Generally speaking, most cases start with the recovery of a body,” Kivlan said. “In this case, it was just the opposite. It was the result of … a couple of men searching for bottles and cans along Route 95 who found a bloody jacket, which turned out to be Robin Benedict’s. That’s how the investigation started.” Further, telephone records revealed that Douglas had made calls along the same stretch on which Benedict’s jacket was recovered. Investigators later connected Douglas to Benedict’s car, which was abandoned in New York City. They also relied on an Amtrak train ticket purchased by Douglas. Because there was no body, Kivlan and his coworkers proceeded with the case using pieced-together webs of evidence like the bloody jacket and the phone calls that linked Douglas to the disappearance. “We were fully prepared to go forward and we felt that without a body, we could [still] get a conviction,” Kivlan said. “As the trial was about to start, he pled guilty and admitted that he had killed her and admitted that he had stolen funds from Tufts, too.” Douglas revealed that he had bludgeoned Benedict with a sledgehammer and dumped her body into a trash container in Rhode Island. Subsequently, Douglas was convicted and sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison, the maximum for the manslaughter charge he confessed to. Gittleman said that Douglas had shown signs of irregularity from the onset,

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Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Campus Comment: Student leaders sound off on life after Nealley, Rodriguez indictments

Charges that former employees Jodie Nealley and Ray Rodriguez embezzled nearly $1 million from Tufts hit everybody at the university hard, but few campus figures were as heavily affected as Tufts Community Union (TCU) senators. They have spent months securing funds generated by the Student Activities Fee, reworking their financial accounts, and getting to know the Office for Campus Life’s new director, Joe Golia. And that’s all as they deal with trust issues stemming from the alleged betrayal by Nealley, who served as their advisor. In this Campus Comment, senators talk about the transition and their thoughts on Golia. “The first priority coming out of this whole scandal was securing the Student Activities Fee and all the other money that was stolen, because it wasn’t just the Student Activities Fee; it was a lot of cash accounts, too. So really just sort of securing the money that deals with students [was important].”

“I always really liked working with Ray. I thought that he was really good with students and that he did his job well, [so] it was really such a shock.”

Jo Duara/tufts Daily

Duncan Pickard, TCU president

“I’ve literally spent the entire summer working on this, working with the finance division of the university to transition the funding of student clubs in a way that … doesn’t disrupt any programming.”

“I was disappointed and saddened, really. Especially with Jodie. Jodie was our advisor. She was loved by everyone at the university, students and faculty alike.”

jo duara/tufts daily

Matt Shapanka, TCU treasurer “[It’s easier] once you figure out that not all administrators are perfect — to say the least. [When we found out about Ray], it wasn’t as bad as when everyone found out about Jodie. Especially considering the position he was in — he dealt more directly with money. I wasn’t quite as surprised.”

“I’ve been amazed at how quickly [Joe Golia] has completely picked up on not only our procedures and the administrative duties, but [also] on what it means to be a Jumbo and what the Tufts campus is all about.” jo Duara/tufts daily

Lauren Levine, TCU assistant treasurer

“[Nealley] really didn’t have a direct involvement with the treasury. That was really Rodriguez’s position. She served as a general advisor. When things got stressful, when there was a lot going on or I needed advice on something … I would just pop into her office and sit down and talk with her.”

“From the student perspective, [for] the groups that spend money on campus, very little has changed. There are some new procedures in place and some different paperwork that will need to be filled out, but day-to-day operations are almost identical.”

jo duara/tufts daily

Scott Silverman, TCU vice president, former TCU treasurer

see DOUGLAS, page 7

—by Carrie Battan

Berea College uses $1.1 billion endowment, creative ideas to provide tuition-free education to its 1,500 students by

Kerianne Okie

Daily Editorial Board

In a country where the rise of college tuition is making the pursuit of higher education increasingly exclusive, it seems far-fetched that a private college could be tuitionfree. But Berea College, a small liberal arts institution in Kentucky, is showing the rest

of the country that higher education should not necessarily be reserved for the wealthy. Berea, which was founded in 1855, was originally established to provide education for freed slaves and low-income students from Appalachia who could not afford to go to other colleges. Today, each of its 1,500 enrolled students is offered the equivalent of

a full-tuition scholarship for each year of undergraduate education. While Berea’s $1.1 billion endowment makes it one of the wealthiest in the United States, the school axes the common luxuries appreciated by students at similarly wealthy institutions, like state-of-the-art facility upgrades — and instead relegates $23,000 to each stu-

dent’s education every year. Berea’s Director of Public Relations Tim Jordan said that while many other schools cannot forego providing these luxuries and still appeal to its applicants, Berea has this option because of the pool of students it draws. “Each school has to appeal to [its] particular kind of market,” Jordan said. “Berea students don’t expect that.”

Berea’s hefty endowment funds pump life –— and students — into its campus. Although some of the funds go to non-educational expenses like sports facilities, the primary purpose of Berea’s endowment is to assure that tuition is entirely subsidized. Because its endowment is directed primarily toward this see TUITION, page 7

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The Tufts Daily

Features

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

7

Features

Courtesy of Berea College

Berea College is a tuition-free private institution located in Kentucky.

Tuition-free college draws high rankings from U.S. News and World Report tuition

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goal, students have to sacrifice some of the luxuries of higher-tuition institutions. Jordan, however, believes that the students don’t mind. “Our students don’t seem to miss those kinds of things; that is not what they’re interested in,” Jordan said. “They recognize that this is a great opportunity for them, and they’re here to get an education, not just to play games.” The school’s dedication to staying tuition-free has not marred its reputation in the world of higher education: Berea is often ranked the top comprehensive college in the South by U.S.News & World Report. While the students at Berea have no tuition checks to write, their education does not come completely free. Each student must spend at least ten hours per week working at a campus job that may range from staffing the

Benedict’s body was never found douglass

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beginning with his compulsive and bizarre work habits. “It started with his personality, probably. He worked all night; he was a compulsive researcher,” he said. These peculiar habits went hand in hand with an overall unhealthy lifestyle, according to Gittleman. “He was a brilliant scientist, a very, very smart guy,” he said. “But he also weighed about 300 pounds. He pleaded the Twinkie case and said he got irritated losing weight.”

school’s hotel to building dorm furniture in the wood shop to participating in school administration. With its financial load lightened by the ability to use unpaid student employees, Berea can afford its notuition policy. Though many believe that a full course load does not lend itself to balancing a part-time job, Jordan said Berea students make their employment an integral and essential part of the college experience. “We consider their labor assignment as part of their education experience,” Jordan said. “They are learning other job skills … besides just flipping burgers or something. Our students are really building real portfolios that they can use later in life.” Berea has recently stood out in the public eye primarily because so many colleges, including Tufts — which raised its costs by 5.33 percent this year — has many questioning why

schools do not use their large endowments to subsidize more of their own students’ educations before spending thousands of dollars building new gyms and theatres. For some Jumbos, exchanging luxuries and planned programs for a smaller tuition bill would be a welcomed change. “I wouldn’t mind paying some tuition,” freshman Syed Badruddin said. “But Tufts is really expensive … I think Tufts should try to lower the tuition.” Badruddin, who was recently part of the orientation process, also believes that Tufts should not allocate so much of its budget to non-educational expenses. “There’s a lot of unnecessary junk behind orientation,” he said. “They have a lot of areas where they could cut back.” But administrators at Tufts maintain that the university’s tuition is

necessary to provide students with a certain level of education and experience expected on the Hill. Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser said that while Berea’s no-tuition policy is very praiseworthy, it is not a policy that is possible for every school. “I think what Berea is doing is very admirable,” Glaser said in an e-mail to the Daily. “I’m glad such a place exists. I don’t think it’s a model for Tufts.” Like all institutions with endowments funded by donors, Tufts cannot freely spend its money because the administrators are restricted by the desires of the donor. “Donations to the university often are attached to certain causes such as financial aid or an endowed chair,” Glaser said. “The Office of Advancement aims to make the contribution satisfying to the donor and helpful to the university.”

The Daily is looking for writers and production staff of all experience levels. General Interest Meeting Wednesday, Sept. 10th 9:15 p.m. in Braker 001

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The Tufts Daily

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Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Tufts Department of Drama and Dance presents

AUDITIONS FOR

THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT By Jean Giraudoux Translated by Laurence Senelick Directed by Downing Cless

Auditions September4&5 Callbacks September6  Allauditioninfoandsignuptimesarepostedonthe callboardintheBalchArenaTheaterlobby,Aidekman ArtsCenter. Questions?contact[email protected]

Arts & Living The Tufts Daily

Movie Review

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

TV Preview

Networks rebound from strikeplagued year with oldies and newbies premiering this fall by

Catherine Scott

Daily Editorial Board

Rottentomatoes.com

Jason Statham appears as a scruffy bad boy with a love interest in ‘Death Race’... how shocking...

‘Death Race’ runs solely on excessive violence by

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Matthew DiGirolamo Daily Editorial Board

Every once in a while, a movie comes along that balances excessive violence with

Death Race

Starring Jason Statham, Joan Allen and Tyrese Gibson Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson a clear purpose and a poignant message. “Death Race” is not one of those movies. Besides containing enough bonecrushing action to merit the label of “torture flick,” the film doesn’t bring the political satire it purports to deliver. “Death Race,” directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, is a

remake and reboot of the 1975 movie “Death Race 2000.” In “DR2000,” the national sport had become a cross country race in which drivers score points for hitting pedestrians. Anderson’s version takes the same character names and basic concept and applies the situation to prisons. A destroyed American economy has allowed private corporations to run the prisons and milk them for profit. The film begins with a race in its last leg, with driver Frankenstein in first, and driver Machine Gun Joe (played by Tyrese Gibson) using … well, machine guns to try to regain the lead. Unfortunately for Frankenstein, whose voice (like that in the 1975 version) is done by David Carradine, his armor is low and he is subsequently blown to pieces.

Fast-forward to a steel mill where Jensen Ames ( Jason Statham) is laid off and is collecting his last paycheck. He returns home to his wife Suzy and his daughter, only to be knocked out and framed with her murder. After being sentenced with a considerable amount of jail time, Ames is sent to a prison run by Warden Hennessy ( Joan Allen). In order to increase her profits, she runs The Death Race, a pay-per-view Internet sensation that garners millions of viewers. Hennessy tells Ames that if he races as crowd-favorite Frankenstein and wins one race, he will be set free. The rest of the film revolves around the prison rivalry between the racers, as well as the building of cars and the see DEATH RACE, page 10

While for many on the Hill, the beginning of September marks the much-anticipated return to Tufts, class and work, the entertainment world does its best to distract us with the fall TV season. Television returns in full force this week, and all of the major television networks have worked extremely hard to rebound from last year’s writers’ strike fiasco. There are many new shows, each begging for its chance at stardom, hoping to be the next “Lost,” “Sex and the City” or “American Idol.” Many oldies-but-goodies will also be returning, alongside a handful of newer shows that survived from last year. Starting with the master of popular TV, ABC lines up a couple of new shows: “Opportunity Knocks” and “Life on Mars.” The former is a reality game show intended to test everyday families’ knowledge about each other, while “Mars” is a drama about a present-day cop who time-travels to 1973. ABC can afford to hold back on the new shows as the season will cruise along with the enormously popular “Desperate Housewives,” “Ugly Betty,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Dancing with the Stars,” though the main attraction, “Lost,” won’t return until February. While “Betty” and “Grey’s” are both on a downward spiral in terms of popularity, the shocking decision to fast-forward the lives of the women in “Housewives” five years into the future proves the network is not above taking risks to create good television. Last year’s “Pushing Daisies” will also make its triumphant return, with the less popular but particularly cute

story of a man who brings his love back to life, but is not allowed to ever touch her again as a result. NBC and CBS are branching out with more new shows than ABC, but NBC also has the ever-popular, highly-addictive “Heroes” and “The Office” to fall back on — especially since no one can get enough of the ultimate awkward couple, Jim and Pam. The new lineup on CBS features “The Mentalist,” starring Simon Baker, about a highly observant, nearly psychic man, and “The Ex-List,” a story about Bella Bloom (played by Elizabeth Reaser), who must revisit all of her ex-boyfriends to find her true love. NBC’s new shows hold more promise, especially “Kath and Kim,” a comedy starring Selma Blair and Molly Shannon about a unique mother-daughter team who balance just the right amount of love and insanity. Another i n t e re s t i n g NBC tidbit is the return of Christian Slater to the screen in “My Own Worst Enemy,” a show about a man with schizophrenic tendencies, in which one half is an efficiency expert with a “Pleasantville” life and the other half is a covert assassin. The FOX network, though known in the past for its less-than-average offerings, brings back some of its more popular features, including the beloved grumpy doctor in “House,” the sexually-depraved forensic anthropologists of “Bones” and the timeslowing agent of “24.” The network will also premiere one of the mosttalked-about new shows and the newest creation of J.J. Abrams, “Fringe.” The show begins with an see TV PREVIEW, page 10

Gallery Review

Argentine photographer Díaz’s cameras reach new heights by Sarah

Cowan

Daily Editorial Board

In the age of Google Maps, we’re used to seeing the “bird’s-eye view” — aerial images of our houses and streets. We’ve

Shifting Perspectives: Esteban Pastorino Díaz At the Grossman Gallery,School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston through Oct. 13 Reception on Sept. 3 at 6 p.m., Artist talk at 7 p.m. 230 The Fenway 617-267-6100 gotten used to the idea of our actions being surveyed and recorded by satellites. We’ve flown in airplanes and seen our towns and forests from far above the everyday human scale, and when we see a plane fly by, we can imagine what its passengers can see of us. But what would our world look like from a flying machine as childlike and playful as a kite? Esteban Pastorino Díaz, an Argentine photographer, considers the limits of our

imagination and imaging technology and finds ways to extend the scope of the human eye. Utilizing his background in mechanical engineering, Díaz designs his own cameras and devises ways to mount them, recording our world in a unique way that redefines the bird’s-eye view we’ve come to expect. “Shifting Perspectives: Esteban Pastorino Díaz,” opened on Aug. 29 at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and is the largest solo exhibition of Díaz’s work ever shown in North America. The title describes not only what happens to viewers as they are first flown up to the level of a kite in mid-air, but also exemplifies the photographer at work. Most intriguing about Díaz’s work is his excited experimentation and the way in which he seeks to challenge himself with different subjects — a busy street in Times Square, a parade, a suburban culde-sac, a carnival, a bullfight. His practice is much like the scientific method: He tests his hypothesis by attempting to define the variables (the space and time of the subject) through calculations, and ultimately surrenders to the chance happening of the experiment — the moment

photographsdonotbend.com

“Barrio, Magdalena” (2003), part of Díaz’s Aerial Series, turns neighborhoods into Monopoly houses. when he exposes the film. project. His work harkens back to pho According to wall text and interviews, tography’s early history in the 19th cenDíaz considers his cameras to be the tury, when it was a new technology to be masterpieces and the photograph simply results, visual records of his research see DÍAZ, page 10

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The Tufts Daily

Arts & Living

From a kite’s-eye view, Díaz’s playful prints offer new dimensions, challenge perception DÍAZ

continued from page 9

experimented with, scientific in scope and not in the realm of aesthetics. Díaz’s work certainly emphasizes the camera, and visitors may need a tutorial in photography to fully understand his experiments, but his work offers more than a conclusion. His large-scale prints, taken from a handcrafted remote-controlled camera mounted on a traditional Japanese kite, are testaments to their circumstances. To account for the kite’s unpredictable movement, Díaz uses a camera with a large aperture so that the image ends up looking like the wrong end of a telescope: the center is in sharp focus and the periphery blurred and darkened. Aerial and detailed, with a dark border, the products make the landscapes look like scale models, the buildings below look like Monopoly houses, water like plastic, and people like figurines. Díaz ends up blurring more than just the edges: He smudges the entire line between child’s play and urban planning. With grass looking like Astroturf, planes like toys and flags like tiny decorations,

his work demands investigation by its viewers, who discover its life in its tiny intricacies. Díaz likes the play between fiction and record — in the wall text, he is quoted as saying, “The capacity to register time is, indeed, the most important aspect I wish to emphasize. This aspect becomes evident when temporality is distorted and I create a fiction of the extension of the photographic instant.” Here he refers to his Panoramics — eight of which are featured in the SMFA show. Mounted in lightboxes, the scene is captured with a homemade stereo camera, a strip camera with a motor that rolls the film along at a constant speed so as to create a seamless 3-D panorama. Asked to use the 3-D glasses provided, viewers follow long streets, parades, and spin around in place, all while staring along the walls. Displayed much smaller than his Aerial Series, the diorama effect is even more prominent, but Díaz’s “fiction” extends beyond what we can understand from the image itself. As he was setting up a projector at the exhibit, Díaz revealed the secret to a particular piece — what seems to be a moving

sidewalk carrying lazy pedestrians was actually taken at the horizontal end of an escalator, and by synchronizing the film with the speed of the steps, its passengers appear to be traveling on the same plane all at once. By using 3-D images, Díaz’s skyscrapers stretch into the air of the gallery, and bulldozers dig deeper into the earth. He challenges us to look at the land as humans have chosen to use it by stilling our flight and defying flatness. Each work challenges the human and mechanical eye to see more, to follow time and movement rather than freeze it. Díaz’s desire to synchronize his camera with the world’s speed encourages poetic moments of chaos — in a Panoramic of a Cuban parade, flags flap and a dancing man twirls, blurring amidst the marching group. Through our glasses, he is a 3-D form of stretched colors, and his time defies the pace of the crowd, of the camera’s calculated progress. Díaz will be speaking at the Grossman Gallery on Wednesday, Sept. 3 at 7 p.m., so when you go, cross your fingers and hope that he’ll bring along his kite.

SMFA.edu

Visitors get 3-D glasses to see works like Díaz’s “Alcazaba” (2006), taken from his handmade camera mounted on a kite.

Even epically abhorrent expletives and Jason Statham can’t save ‘Race’ DEATH RACE

continued from page 9

races themselves. The competition consists of three parts spread over three days, which is enough time for riders to bicker, complain and form ‘alliances.’ The raceway is equipped with “Mario Kart”-style powerups that allow drivers to perform offense- or defense-based maneuvers. The track also contains booby traps that cause instant death, and shortcuts for the drivers who like to cheat. For anyone who hasn’t gotten the hint that this film is incredibly graphic, look no further than the edited scenes in the trailer. The shot cuts away just before the gore, but it’s easy to picture exactly what goes on in the next frame. Besides blood and guts, the film is filled with profanity for no apparent reason, including Allen’s infamous charactershattering line: “Listen c-cksucker, f-ck with me and we’ll see who sh-ts on a sidewalk.” The film desperately tries to be a cautionary tale, as Anderson sets the film in 2012 and prefaces the feature with opening title cards that

explain the country’s state of despair and the greed of the private companies. The acting is typical Statham: a gruffly-voiced tough guy who has a soft spot in his heart for his loved ones. This is the same character he plays in most of his movies, and it is quickly getting worn-out. The rest of the cast does a fairly good job, but their efforts are marred by the complete tackiness of each line. The film doesn’t leave much to be desired in terms of cinematography or editing, though none of that really resonates with the audience due to the overwhelming cheese factor. The problem is that “Death Race” doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. The plot is nearly nonexistent, the gore is superfluous, and the suspense is almost too much to handle. It’s not really scary, and it’s not really funny, so what is it? The film lingers in a state somewhere between cheesy action flick and sadistic dystopian carnage. For fans of fast cars, bloodshed and mindless action, however, “Death Race” will leave you salivating for more.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

On-campus Preview

Alum to bring collegiate comedy to Brown and Brew during show tonight



evanwecsell.com

Tufts alumnus Evan Wecksell (LA ‘01) has spent the past month turning college life into the comedic experience of a lifetime. Hot off the start of his 13-campus “Helping Hand Tour,” Wecksell will be stopping by Brown and Brew tonight to give Tufts a taste of his college-inspired brand of “shallow and pedantic” comedy. Wecksell has spent his years since graduation building a strong comedic reputation in New York comedy clubs and on VH1’s “I Love the 80s 3D” and “I Love Toys.” But Wecksell, named one of the Hot Comedians of 2009 by “Campus Activities Magazine,” believes college campuses suit him just as well. “I’m kind of immature in general,” Wecksell said. “It’s easy for me to slip into the college persona.” Accordingly, this year Wecksell co-wrote and produced “College the Musical,” a typical tale of one freshman’s complex and often comedic adjustments to life, relationships and alcohol. Wecksell, who specializes in both guitar comedy and stand-up, says tonight’s performance will include some of his original songs from “College the Musical” and other material inspired by his experience as a “shy, acned freshman, living in Hodgdon, and on the Internet chronically.” While on the Tufts cross country team, Wecksell was convinced by his teammates to rush Theta Chi and now says, “Pledging can be the greatest semester of your life.” Tufts is the fifth stop on Wecksell’s “Helping Hand Tour,” named in honor of Theta Chi’s motto. Tonight’s performance is also sure to include a menagerie of original songs that Wecksell describes as “totally bizarre.” With storylines involving kidnapped homeless men, male strippers and horny old women, it’s no wonder that Wecksell’s work is often compared to that of legends Adam Sandler and Stephen Lynch. Tonight’s performance at Brown and Brew begins at 8 p.m. and admission is free. —by Jan McCreary

‘90210’ battles ‘Gossip Girl’ for hearts and minds of valley-girl demographic TV PREVIEW

continued from page 9

entire international flight turning into goo, and then follows an FBI agent who must track down two scientists to help her solve the mystery/

There are many new shows, each begging for its chance at stardom, hoping to be the next “Lost,” “Sex and the City” or “American Idol.” Many oldies-but-goodies will also be returning, alongside a handful of newer shows that survived from last year. conspiracy of those using the world as test subjects in a lab. Although just the mention of the Abrams name causes television viewing

to drastically rise, “Fringe” cannot top the new (or is it old?) show coming to the CW this fall. Everyone must have seen the entertainment news announcing this show, as well as the several magazine covers displaying not only the beautiful new faces but also the controversial old ones returning to America’s favorite ZIP code. That’s right — “90210” will return to television, with Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty reprising their old roles as Kelly Taylor and Brenda Walsh, respectively. What’s left to be seen is whether the new show can affect the new generation as it did teenagers of the last decade. The excessively sexy “Gossip Girl,” returning for its second season, may have already claimed the attention of the majority of the 18-24 demographic. Nearly all of the old favorites will be back, but there is still great potential for a new top-dog series. At the very least, viewers will get to see Garth and Doherty throw down like in the old days.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The Tufts Daily

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Captured

CAPTURED

Scenes from Orientation week for the Class of 2012

Photos by Aalok Kanani and Jo Duara

The Tufts Daily

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THE TUFTS DAILY Robert S. Silverblatt Editor-in-Chief

Editorial Rachel Dolin Kristin Gorman

Managing Editors

Jacob Maccoby Editorial Page Editors Jason Richards Giovanni Russonello Executive News Editor Sarah Butrymowicz News Editors Pranai Cheroo Michael Del Moro Nina Ford Ben Gittleson Gillian Javetski Jeremy White Alex Bogus Assistant News Editor Carrie Battan Executive Features Editor Jessica Bidgood Features Editors Robin Carol Kerianne Okie Charlotte Steinway Sarah Bliss Assistant Features Editors Meghan Pesch Mike Adams Executive Arts Editor Jessica Bal Arts Editors Grant Beighley Sarah Cowan Catherine Scott Matthew DiGirolamo Emma Bushnell Assistant Arts Editors Matt Digirolamo

Editorial | Letters

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

EDITORIAL

When compliance needs to be toned down

In the midst of an ongoing antipiracy campaign led by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Tufts is correct in protecting its students from unreasonable litigation. In its most recent round of legal action, the RIAA has subpoenaed the names of 11 Tufts students who allegedly engaged in illegal file sharing. The trade association wants Tufts to identify the offending students through university network records. According to Tufts administrators, however, the records are not accurate enough to match students’ identities to Internet activity in two cases. We at the Daily could not agree more. In order to prove a student’s guilt, the records must show that a specific user illegally shared files. The university has two ways to investigate this. Records from the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) can accurately match an Internet Protocol (IP) address to an individual computer. DHCP records, however, are only kept for 10 days, and therefore the university must identify students using

another, less accurate, set of records obtained by the Activity Resolution Protocol (ARP). While ARP records are stored indefinitely, they cannot definitively make that connection. Consequently, the RIAA would have to submit an entire group of students to legal scrutiny in order to identify a single violator. Just as police officers should not lock down a neighborhood for a single theft, the RIAA should not get access to the private information of several students if they are really only concerned about one of them. It is often tempting to sacrifice liberties for expediency and results. But we live in a society that holds sacred the value of procedural rights. It’s for that very reason that the RIAA should not be allowed to cast this wide net and blanket together all potential offenders. There’s also the issue of unbalanced resources. Being named in an RIAA lawsuit is a difficult situation for any student since proving one’s innocence against a better-financed and more powerful opponent is an intimidating

experience. As a result, it’s refreshing to see Tufts administrators argue for students unfairly dragged into legal maneuvering. And it’s equally encouraging to hear that the RIAA has seemingly decided to concede the validity of the university’s concerns. After all, the RIAA should not be painted as the sole ‘bad guy’ in the file-sharing debate. Students are undoubtedly breaking the law when they engage in piracy, so it’s hardly a mystery why the association is upset. But a separate question is whether or not the RIAA’s tactics are intelligent, or even realistic. At the Daily, we have frequently argued on this page that suing its customers as a means to prevent piracy will not solve the RIAA’s problems; the battle cannot be won through fear. We instead encourage the RIAA to work with students to encourage legal filesharing options. Services like Ruckus and Pandora, rather than lawsuits and subpoenas, must be the central pieces in the RIAA’s anti-piracy campaign.

Drew Sheneman

Jyll Saskin Executive Op-Ed Editor Thomas Eager Executive Sports Editor Sapna Bansil Sports Editors Evans Clinchy Philip Dear David Heck Carly Helfand Noah Schumer Scott Janes Assistant Sports Editor Jo Duara Executive Photo Editor Alex Schmieder Photo Editors Laura Schultz Rebekah Sokol Annie Wermiel James Choca Assistant Photo Editors Emily Eisenberg Aalok Kanani Danai Macridi Tim Straub Jordy Wolfand

PRODUCTION Marianna Bender

Production Director

Emily Neger Executive Layout Editor Kelsey Anderson Layout Editors Leanne Brotsky Jennifer Iassogna Julia Izumi Amanda Nenzen Andrew Petrone Muhammad Qadri Daniel Simon Amani Smathers Steven Smith Katie Tausanovitch Adam Raczkowski Executive Technical Manager Michael Vastola Technical Manager

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

John Sotherland Executive Online Editor Louise Galuski Online Editors Hena Kapadia Minah Kim Matt Skibinski New Media Editor Kelly Moran Webmaster Caryn Horowitz Executive Copy Editor Grace Lamb-Atkinson Copy Editors Michelle Hochberg Ben Smith Christopher Snyder Elisha Sum Ricky Zimmerman Brianna Beehler Assistant Copy Editors Casey Burrows Alison Lisnow Rachel Oldfield Mary Jo Pham Lily Zahn

BUSINESS Malcolm Charles

Executive Business Director

Dwijo Goswami Receivables Manager Brenna Duncan Head Ad Manager The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community. P.O. Box 53018, Medford, MA 02155 617 627 3090 FAX 617 627 3910 [email protected]

Hey! Notice anything different about us? And no, I’m not referring to the fact that we’re no longer recycling old Sudokus. Although if you did catch that, be sure to come copy edit for the Daily! We can also refer you to Sudoku Addicts Anonymous. Some of you may have noticed that the Daily has a different “feel” this semester, hopefully a more modern and authoritative one. This starts right at the top of our paper with our new banner. We’re hoping to make the Daily crisper and more aesthetically pleasing, so we came up with a clean-looking replacement for our old two-line banner. But a bolder banner was not quite enough to give the paper the fresh look we’re seeking. You’ll notice that we’ve also changed our headline font (it’s now Cambria Math, in case you’re curious) and softened our section headers slightly.

Our new look This is an ongoing process, so we hope to roll out even more changes to our headlines as the semester progresses to provide additional visual variety on our pages. Similarly, we hope you will enjoy our increased focus on providing you with the best photos and other visual aids that we can. During this process, we haven’t forgotten that you — like most of our generation — probably rely on online sources to combine convenience with real-time updates on important stories. So we hope that you will keep the new TuftsDaily.com, which we spent the summer months revamping, in mind when surfing the Web. We’re in the process of adding blogs to the site and will also include a number of new audio features to supplement what you read in the Daily, not to mention the rest of the interactive features that we’re working on.

To make sure you don’t miss any of this, you can sign up for a free subscription to get the Daily in your inbox each morning; and then you can check the site throughout the day for updated content. As we work to make our paper more reader friendly, we’ll depend in large part on your feedback. We’d like to know what you think of the changes we’ve made, as well as any suggestions you have about ways to improve both our look and our content. So send any and all thoughts to [email protected] and we’ll be sure to consider them. And don’t forget, the best way to influence the quality of the Daily’s content, photos and layout is to join our staff! Sincerely, Rob Silverblatt Editor-in-Chief

Corrections A table alongside the Aug. 27 article, “Cost of attending Tufts increases by 5.33 percent,” incorrectly stated past costs of tuition and expenses for attending Tufts. The numbers associated with total costs actually apply to tuition, and the correct numbers for total costs are as follows: 200001, $33,394; 2001-02, $34,879; 2002-03, $36,465; 2003-04, $38,269; 2004-05, $39,998; 2005-06, $42,018; 2006-07, $44,500; 2007-08, $46,860; 2008-09, $49,358. The Aug. 27 article “JJA claims success in fight for janitors” was written by Michael Del Moro, not Sarah Butrymowicz.

EDITORIAL POLICY Editorials that appear on this page are written by the Editorial Page editors, and individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of the Tufts Daily. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Tufts Daily editorial board.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must be submitted by 4 p.m. and should be handed into the Daily office or sent to [email protected]. All letters must be word processed and include the writer’s name and telephone number. There is a 350-word limit and letters must be verified. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length.

ADVERTISING POLICY All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Board and Executive Business Director. A publication schedule and rate card are available upon request.

The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

13

Op-Ed

John McCain’s military experience is his greatest shortcoming by Jimmy

Pianka

Despite its obvious appeal to a culture still very much enamored with war, John McCain’s past as a tortured POW is in fact his greatest shortcoming; it is precisely what makes him ill-suited to lead us into an acceptable future. As his campaign would have us believe, John McCain’s experience in the Hanoi Hilton transformed him as a person. It hardened him, they would say — steeled him to the harsh realities of the human heart and armored him for battle with the world’s evils. The idea is that he will fight for us, that — unlike his liberal counterpart — he will not be weak in the face of our enemies. This Roman fantasy, however, is exactly the attitude that has made us such a tragic and destructive menace abroad. Hostility as the default stance keeps us primitive and fearful, xenophobic and bigoted, cowering behind our artillery instead of engaging the world with civility. The scary part of this election is that John McCain, apparently far more so than George W. Bush, is bristling with it. Recall the opening note of his candidacy. His campaign began with the loud proclamation of the horrors he endured, stories of how brave and honorable he had been and the implication that this experience would make him a good president. The Republican image of “good,” however, appears to still be a dueler with his chest out and his hands by his guns. They have mistaken belligerence for strength, when, in fact, real strength will come from our ability to behave reasonably in the global sandbox and disarm conflict with grace and foresight. Regardless of who he might have been 10 or 20 years ago, the John McCain of today is a man seemingly fueled entirely by hawkish militarism. Fiveand-a-half years is a long time to spend in enemy captivity, and I think it’s safe to assume that it was one of the more defining experiences of his life (his campaign certainly trumpets it as such). He has recently begun to parrot his opponent’s platform — a deceptive,

MCT

desperate effort to appeal to the awesome current swelling in this country — but it fails to mask the character he first presented, a man shaped profoundly by violence and cruelty, whose only visible passion is the spread of American values with force. Never once have we heard him speak with enthusiasm

about the progressive, constructive things he would like to accomplish. He isn’t fired up about health care, our languishing middle class or our planet’s dire condition. He seems bored, disinterested and a little irritated when asked questions about the economy or medical insurance, even going so far as to dismiss one

reporter with an admission of ignorance when asked about insurance policies that cover Viagra but not birth control. When the discussion turns to war, however, his eyes light up and he suddenly becomes a great deal more articulate. He seems to relish the idea of being commander-in-chief much more than the idea of

being president, as if directing the great American power were the job’s primary assignment. He tries to revive our blood lust for bin Laden, praises our occupation of Iraq and makes terrifyingly sincere gestures towards war with Iran. His style of diplomacy involves sitting cross-armed in stubborn silence. Occasionally he’ll let something slip and show his inner bulldog, like the time in 2000 when he told reporters on his campaign bus, “I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live.” Or the “bomb Iran” joke he sang last year at a town-hall meeting. These glimpses beyond his public visage are horrifying; violent, deeply ingrained prejudices and a humorous nonchalance about war are qualities we should avoid in a president. Also, if we are to trust military leaders and some of McCain’s fellow politicians, he is known for having a dangerously volatile temper and being prone to emotive, kneejerk reactions. “I think it is a little scary,” retired Major General Paul Eaton said. “I think this guy’s first reactions are not necessarily the best reactions. I believe that he acts on impulse.” His campaign has been fond of the old “wisdom through age” adage, but his behavior has demonstrated the opposite. Voters should ignore the posters and look at the man himself: Actions have always spoken louder than words, especially when their speaker has so much to gain. He is correctly called a hero for the service he did this country, but the fact is that John McCain and the beast in his heart have no business leading what is still a free world. The next president will have an opportunity like never before to elevate this country and spur a new age in the world at large, but he will fail if he approaches the task with anger and fear. It will take temperance, compassion and the basic identification with all humans as kin. Sadly, these are qualities John McCain will probably never show. Jimmy Pianka is a junior majoring in philosophy and cognitive and brain science.

From the TCU President: Get involved, know your resources by

Duncan Pickard

We use a lot of words to describe what Tufts is. Words like “beyond boundaries,” “active citizenship,” and “civic engagement.” At their core, these terms are what this university aspires to be, but we use them so much that it has become difficult to figure out their exact meanings. We are at an important point in our history as we continue to become one of the world’s top universities. But where exactly are we headed? The individual answer to that question can vary greatly. An IR major will see Tufts differently than an engineer. But, generally, I think we all can agree on a few common visions we have for this university. I’ll discuss just a few of them here. First, our potential as a burgeoning research institution is without limit. But in that process, we also need to make sure students are not lost in the shuffle. Let’s make sure Tufts does not lose its undergraduate focus, and that we have

the same small-college feel with the advantages of a big university. Second, the cultural, racial, religious, ideological and political diversity of the student body is expressed best through the number of clubs we have here — and that’s terrific. But what is lost when so many activities and so many groups are meeting at one time? What interactions are we missing out on because we cannot be in multiple places at once? Finally, the new opportunities created by accepting even more qualified students here, regardless of socioeconomic background, excites me more than anything else. But when we welcome new students, how can we guarantee that they can take advantage of everything we have to offer? We need to make sure the campus is aware of class diversity at Tufts. These are realities we all need to appreciate as Tufts continues on its steep trajectory. It is our job as the TCU Senate to

make sure these, and other student visions for the university, are at the top of every administrator’s agenda and reach out to the Tufts community to make sure that the university is providing for every student’s need. Transparency in student government is critical in ensuring needs are heard. That does not mean that we expect our meetings (Sundays, 7 p.m., campus center) to be filled with non-senators every week, or that we plan on waking up every morning to a full inbox ([email protected]). We just want to make sure everyone is aware of the resources available when there is a problem at Tufts. Senate is the best way to have your voice heard. We are always looking for student groups outside of TCU government to partner with on projects. For example, you will notice at Fall Ball that we have moved from water bottles to cups and water coolers as a stainability initiative with Tufts Environmental Consciousness Outreach and Think

Outside the Bottle. Send me an e-mail if there is any way that Senate can help your group achieve its goals. I encourage everyone to check out our new Web site, senate.tufts.edu. It provides a great list of resources and information on how Senate works. I am also launching my own personal blog on life at Tufts; you’ll be able to find it at duncanfortufts.com by the end of the week. This blog does not necessarily reflect the opinion of anyone else in the TCU or student government opinion as a whole. It’s just a window into my thoughts on what Tufts life is and what it could be. I hope it will engage, question and help create a campus conversation about some important issues. TCU government is here for all of us. Get involved when and how you want. Let us be a resource. Duncan Pickard is a junior majoring in history. He is the 2008-09 TCU Senate president.

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 ([email protected]) 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.

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Sports

Inside College Football

Sanchez, USC quiet critics with decisive opening-week win by Sapna

Bansil

WEEKEND SCOREBOARD

Daily Editorial Board

Who’s doubting them now? The third-ranked USC Trojans couldn’t have scripted a better start to their 2008 campaign, thrashing the Virginia Cavaliers 52-7 Saturday in Charlottesville, Va. The victory cemented USC as a legitimate national title contender and silenced any critics who wondered how its offense would survive an injury to its starting quarterback and inexperience on its offensive line. Southern Cal’s prolific performance led to a whopping 558 yards of total offense and the squad’s first 50-point game since its 2006 opener. Leading the charge was junior quarterback Mark Sanchez, just three weeks removed from a left knee injury that once appeared to jeopardize his chances of making Saturday’s start. Showing no ill effects, Sanchez completed 26 of 35 passes for a career-high 338 yards and three touchdowns in a performance that suggests he is now prepared to continue the lineage of great Trojan quarterbacks. That didn’t seem as certain last season, when Sanchez made three starts filling in for the injured John David Booty. In two of those games — the first, a near-upset at the hands of the hapless Arizona Wildcats, and the third, a loss to the Oregon Ducks that ultimately cost USC a chance to play for the national championship — Sanchez tossed a combined three touchdowns against four interceptions. These poor

Georgia Southern 21 No. 1 Georgia 45

No. 20 Illinois No. 6 Missouri

42 52

Youngstown St. 0 No. 2 Ohio St. 43

Appalachian St. No. 7 LSU

13 41

Villanova No. 8 WVU

21 48

No. 3 USC Virginia

52 7

Chattanooga 2 No. 4 Oklahoma 57

Hawaii No. 5 Florida

No. 24 Auburn 34 No. 9 Clemson 10 LA-Monroe 0 No. 10 Auburn 34

10 56

outings, coupled with the arrival of highly-touted transfer Mitch Mustain, left the incumbent starter in a battle for his job entering spring practice in 2008. Head coach Pete Carroll eventually stuck with Sanchez, however, even after the California native put together a less-than-spectacular spring and suffered the knee injury that left him out of practice until the week of the season opener. Sanchez rewarded Carroll’s faith on Saturday, displaying a great command of the offense by distributing the ball to nine different receivers. With two

completions of over 40 yards, Sanchez also showcased a deep-threat capability that was missing from Southern Cal’s offense in the two seasons that saw Booty at the helm. Sanchez received tremendous help from the Trojans’ offensive line, which was hit hard during the offseason after four of last year’s starters left for the NFL Draft. Certainly the Cavaliers’ pass rush, still trying to overcome the graduation of stud defensive end Chris Long, isn’t exactly amongst the nation’s best. But Southern Cal’s revamped line — consisting of center Kris O’Dowd, tack-

les Butch Lewis and Charles Brown, and guards Zach Heberer and Jeff Byers — still had an impressive showing, yielding no sacks and giving an inexperienced quarterback all the time he needed. For proof of the Trojan offensive line’s effectiveness, look no further than the running game, where USC outpaced Virginia 218-32. Regardless of whether C.J. Gable, Joe McKnight, Allen Bradford or Stafon Johnson was rushing the football, every one of the Trojans’ quartet of fullbacks had a hole to run through. The highlight came with 4:01 to play in the first quarter, when Gable ran untouched for a game-breaking 33-yard touchdown thanks to key blocks from Herberer, Lewis and O’Dowd. But with its toughest opponent of the season next on the docket, USC won’t have much time to dwell on its performance against UVA. On Sept. 13, the Trojans will return to the Coliseum for their home opener against the secondranked Ohio State Buckeyes, a matchup that will surely have major BCS implications later in the season. Fresh off their 43-0 demolition of the Youngstown State Penguins Saturday afternoon, the Buckeyes will challenge Sanchez and the Southern Cal offensive line with a defense that held its opening week opponent to a paltry 74 yards of total offense, including -11 yards rushing. A veteran-laden defensive unit, starring senior All-Americans James Laurinaitis at linebacker and Malcolm Jenkins at cornerback, will be yet another test for the Trojan offense’s largely inexperienced starters.

Cross country team hopes 2008 season will result in elusive Nationals bid

WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY continued from page 20

addition to our team.” Despite their youth, the Jumbos are far from lacking in leadership, with senior veterans Erica Hylton and Susan Allegretti coming in to join senior Betsy Aronson, one of last year’s tri-captains, in the other two captains’ roles. “Our captains this year are awesome,” McNamara said. “Even the other sophomores and juniors are looking up to them for leadership. I think they’re going to do a great job leading the team this year.” Also key for the Jumbos this season will be McNamara, whose stellar freshman campaign set milestones for Tufts in 2007. After her 15th-place showing at NESCACs cemented her as the Jumbos’ No. 3 runner, McNamara went on

to earn a championship berth with a ninth-place finish at Regionals before becoming the Jumbos’ first-ever freshman to earn All-American honors in women’s cross country. The Jumbos will look to McNamara to lead the pack in the absence of Beck and O’Brien. “She’s up to the challenge,” Morwick said. “She put in a good summer and she’s capable of doing anything she wants to in cross country. She’s a really talented runner and a really hard worker who is very focused on training and performance.” Luckily for the Jumbos, the team will return from the summer relatively injury-free, a much-welcome change from the 2007 season. At this time last year, injuries plagued the Jumbos both on and off thecourse, with Beck and then-

Federer, Djokovic take court today with eyes on quarters US OPEN

continued from page 19

Australian Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Sunday’s third round and a four-set second round victory over 2000 US Open champion Marat Safin of Russia. Robredo has once again proven himself a strong earlyround performer at Flushing Meadows, as demonstrated by four appearances in the Round of 16 over the last five years. Djokovic, however, boasts a Grand Slam hard court résumé that includes the 2008 Australian Open title and a run to last year’s finals at the US Open. If the young Serb can keep his play disciplined, he ought to have little problem advancing to the quarterfinals. While the bulk of the attention from the media and tennis fans remains steadfastly on Nadal, Federer and Djokovic as the front-runners to capture this year’s Open crown,

there remain a few other highly seeded players in contention who could catch fire at just the right time and shake up the tournament’s focus. Among them are No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, who has made runs to the semis at the Open the last two years, and No. 8 Andy Roddick, who was champion at Flushing Meadows back in 2003 and a runner-up to Federer there in 2006. Davydenko faces off today against upstart Gilles Müller of Luxembourg, who while playing as a qualifier, has pulled off back-to-back five-set wins after dropping the first two sets in the second and third rounds of the tournament. Roddick’s opponent is Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, who is seeded 11th but remains a clay court player at heart and will have trouble overcoming the American on his favorite surface.

junior Katie Rizzolo sitting out to start the season and O’Brien and McNamara heading into competition following exten-

“We lost Katy and Cat, and obviously they were two of the best, but our top kids will be really competitive with anyone in New England. It’s really a matter of how the new people end up doing.” Kristen Morwick coach sive summer rehab stints. “It’s really exciting because

there haven’t been many injuries at all,” Hopkins said. “Coming in, it’s always a big plus. It’s been an issue in the past with people being a little too ambitious during the summer or overtraining a bit, but from the runs we’ve had so far, it seems like everyone was able to get their miles in and train smart through the summer, so they’re healthy and ready to go and really take off.” “We’ve had [a few] chances to see where people are fitnesswise and what they’re ready for,” Hopkins continued. “I’m really excited to see a group of returners as well as healthy freshmen coming in that will be ready to train hard at the beginning of the season and hopefully through the rest of the season too.” The Jumbos will officially start the season Saturday at

the annual Trinity Invitational. While Tufts dominated the competition last year, placing five runners in the top 10, the Jumbos’ focus is more on getting a sense of where they are training-wise than on winning the race. “It’s a very low-key meet,” Morwick said. “It’s nice to start with a race that’s shorter. It’s a very difficult course — it’s very hilly, and it’s still early in the year, so it’s going to be warm. It allows us to see where we are in a scenario where we’re not racing top competition in the league.” “Trinity has a good team,” she continued. “They’re not a pushover, but there are some smaller teams at the meet. It’s nice to open up against a more relaxed field. I just like to see people get out and race for the first time. It’s just a good way to test the waters.”

SCHEDULE | Sept. 2 - 8 tue

wed

thurs

fri

Sat

Football

Men’s Soccer

at Gordon 7 p.m.

Women’s Soccer Field Hockey

vs. Wesleyan 1 p.m.

Volleyball

Men’s Cross Country

at Trinity Invitational 10:30 a.m.

Women’s Cross Country

at Trinity Invitational 10:30 a.m.

Golf

sun

mon

18

The Tufts Daily

Sports

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Sports

19

US Open

Top seeds alive and well as Open moves into later rounds by

Thomas Eager

Daily Editorial Board

As the second week of play kicks off for men’s singles at the US Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., the three favorites of this year’s fourth and final major event show no signs of slowing down as they all look to add to their Grand Slam troves. World and tournament No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal of Spain continued on his quest for his third Grand Slam title of the year and sixth of his career with a four-set victory yesterday over unseeded American Sam Querrey. With the win, Nadal moves on to the quarterfinals, matching his careerbest showing at the Open in 2006 when he lost in the quarters to Mikhail Youzhny of Russia. This time around, the young Spaniard will face unseeded American Mardy Fish, who is making an unprecedented run at this year’s Open after posting three straight upset wins over seeded players, including No. 32 Gael Monfils of France yesterday in straight sets. Fish also emerged victorious in straight sets over fellow American and ninth seed James Blake in the third round and knocked off No. 24 Paul-Henri Mathieu the round before. Nadal’s stellar 2008 season ought to dictate a win tomorrow over the streaking Fish, who has advanced to a Grand Slam quarterfinal just once before in his career, but the world’s best ought to be wary of the American, as the redhot underdog could play David to Nadal’s Goliath. Meanwhile,defending

champion and No. 2 seed Roger Federer has looked true to form through three rounds of play, not dropping a set en route to his match today against Igor Andreev of Russia, seeded 23rd. While the Swiss, who is on the hunt for his fifth consecutive US Open crown and 13th major title of his career, has played mediocre hard court tennis thus far in 2008, his play at this point in Flushing Meadows appears to reflect a revamped desire to end the Grand Slam season on a winning note. To his credit, Andreev pulled off a dominating straight set upset of No. 13 Fernando Verdasco in the third round Sunday and has not dropped a set all tournament. That said, it would take a major mental collapse on the part of Federer as defending champion to slip up this early at the Open. As for Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who is seeded third and remains a legitimate contender along with the aforementioned Federer and Nadal, his tennis has remained relatively honed throughout three rounds of play as well to qualify for the Round of 16. After making short work of Frenchman Arnaud Clement and American qualifier Rob Kendrick in his first two rounds, the Serb surrendered the first set of his Sunday contest against Marin Cilic of Croatia before rebounding to win 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (0). Awaiting Djokovic today is No. 15 Tommy Robredo of Spain, whose tournament included wins over 2008 see US OPEN, page 17

Top Ten | Summer Sports Breakups

MCT

US Open No. 2 seed Roger Federer rips a forehand during his third round contest against Radek Stepanek on Sunday. The Swiss looks to pick up a record fifth-straight Crown at Flushing Meadows, but first will duel with No. 23 Igor Andreev today in the Round of 16.

It was the summer of the breakup in the wide world of sports. It seemed that no sport could escape the cold winds of Splitsville, no relationship could weather the slings and arrows of outrageous affairs, and no athlete could live up to his given name. Here at the Daily, we compiled the 10 best breakups in honor of the summer that was: 10. Alex Rodriguez and Cynthia Rodriguez: After over five years together, A-Rod and C-Rod parted ways in early July amid rumors of a relationship between the Yankee slugger and aging pop star Madonna. While the truth remains murky, it’s evident that just the thought of someone born during the Ford Administration cheating with someone who was born while Eisenhower was president proved simply too much for Cynthia to handle. 9. The City of Seattle and the Supersonics: It was a bitter divorce between these two as a group of Oklahoma City investors led by Clay Bennett successfully purchased the Supersonic franchise and whisked it away to the Sooner State. Now aptly named the Oklahoma City National Basketball Association team, all Seattle has to look back on are 41 happy seasons together, including an NBA championship in 1979. 8. Manny Ramirez and the Red Sox: Manny being Manny? After consecutive seasons of dancing around this breakup, the Sox finally cut ties with the slugger after a tumultuous sevenand-a-half seasons together. Our question is about the (World Series) rings: Namely, is Manny obligated to give one or both of them back? 7. Mike and the Mad Dog: One of the most famous sports radio duos Mike Francesa and Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo called it quits after 19 years on air together. With Mike as the more knowledgeable and Mad Dog as the more likable part of the team, these two were a match made in heaven, but their different styles eventually gave way to a sour spring in 2008 and an official split in August.

MCT

6. Boston and its underdog status: If you

Boston fans thought you could hang onto this one after buying a World Series, a Super Bowl appearance and an NBA Championship all in the same year, think again. 5. Chad Javon Ocho Cinco and his original last name: After flirting with Ocho Cinco as a nickname during the 2006 NFL season, the Bengal WR legally ditched his given name of Johnson in favor of the Ocho Cinco surname just last week. 4. Roger Federer and the Wimbledon title: With five consecutive Wimbledon titles to his name leading up to this year’s Championships, many felt that nothing would stop the Fed Express from winning his sixth in July. Alas, Rafael Nadal of Spain had other plans and successfully captured the Swiss’ beloved hardware. 3. United States and winning the Olympics gold medals race: China may have smoked the Stars and Stripes in the gold medal count at the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, but at least we don’t lip sync our national anthem. 2. The Yankees/Red Sox and first place in the AL East: In what was once seemingly an annual guarantee, the Yankees and Red Sox always found their home atop the AL East standings. But after the exorcism of the Devil in central Florida, a “Ray” of sunshine is peering — check that — now pouring through the clouds in Tampa. With less than thirty games left on the slate, it looks like the Rays, not the Yanks or Sawx, will be dancing atop the standings come October. 1. Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers: After a long, illustrious career as the face of the green and gold, Favre made it clear he would not be going back to Lambeau Field this fall. However, after a long summer down on his hunting range in Mississippi, he felt the inkling to return once more to the gridiron. Packers’ management, however, along with many of the cheesehead faithful, had already moved on and Favre was left out in the cold. If only the Jets were worth anything more than nine or ten wins.

Sports

20

The Tufts Daily Men’s Cross Country Preview

INSIDE US Open 19 Top Ten 19 Inside College Football 17

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Despite loss of two captains, Nationals remains top priority Team kicks off 2008 campaign at Trinity on Saturday by

David Heck

Daily Editorial Board

After enjoying a successful 2007 season — which featured a third-place finish at the NCAA New England Championship and an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships — the men’s cross country team starts off with a clean slate on Saturday when it travels to Hartford, Conn. for the Trinity Invitational. Although much of the training occurs during the summer, the team came back earlier to meet and train in preparation for its first race. “We’ve had a chance to see the freshmen,” junior co-captain Nick Welch said. “They seem like a good class. There’s a whole range of abilities and experience levels, and it’ll get clear how they’re able to run when we get more races and workouts. At this point they look good and seem excited and ready to jump into it.” While it took clutch performances and a little luck to qualify for Nationals last year, the team is hopeful that it can equal last season’s effort. “There are many parts of the year that make up a successful season, like guys improving and making a jump after summer or freshmen having a good intro to college running and college life in general,” Welch said. “Each workout, each week, each race has its own

importance. Obviously, there’s much more focus and importance placed on late season meets that impact Nationals.” “I don’t think our team goals are much different this year than last year or previous years in general,” Welch continued. “We want to get back to Nationals. Whether it comes from winning Regionals or grabbing that at-large bid, our goal is to get back to Nationals in the long term.” The team will be looking for some new faces to step up and fill the void left by the departure of former senior captains Chris Kantos (E ’07) and Dave Sorensen (E ’07), two of the team’s top three runners in the 2007 campaign. “There’s no hiding the fact that we graduated two of our top three, two of our seniors, captains, leaders,” Welch said. “In every respect, it’s a big hole to fill. But there are guys that are going to step up, there’s not a doubt in my mind ... There were a few guys last year who were at the back of our top seven and certainly can look to make the jump.” Additionally, the team will look for continued improvement from junior Jesse Faller, who last year as a second-year was already the team’s best runner. His 18th-place finish last year at the NCAAs in Minnesota was more than 60 spots ahead of the next Tufts runner — Sorensen finished

79th — and was good enough to merit All-American honors. “I can’t fill the role myself because I’m only one person, and we’re losing two seniors [from our top seven],” Faller said. “The best I can do is to do as well as I did last year or better, which would be important for the team. As far as filling the roles of the seniors, we have a couple sophomores looking really good right now, and I think they’ve been training hard all summer and they’re going to be a huge part of our team.” Those sophomores will get a chance to show their improvement this weekend during the race at Trinity. While it poses no late-season significance and will be shortened to a 5k race, as opposed to the traditional 8k length, the team looks to this first meet as an important piece of the foundation to a successful 2008 campaign. “It will be the first chance for those returning to come back after months of track and get back on the cross country course and see how all that summer training can be put to use,” Welch said. “For the freshmen, it’s their first chance to don a Tufts uniform and race as a Jumbo. The program has its continuity, but each team has its own identity, and this will be the first time that the ’08 team steps on the line together.”

Spring athletes continue to tally both conference and national awards While many Tufts students spent their summers traveling the world, working at internships or simply enjoying a few months of freedom from academia, a number of Jumbos turned their regular and postseason successes on the field into NESCAC, regional and national accolades. They include:

All-NESCAC Awards Men’s Track and Field Ikenna Acholonu - So Jeremy Arak - Sr James Bradley - Jr Scott Brinkman - So Trevor Donadt - So Jared Engelking - So Jesse Faller - So Colin Fitzgerald - Jr Billy Hale - So Andrew Longley - So Dan Marcy - Sr Phil Rotella - Jr Dave Sorensen - Sr Marc Soskin - So Marvin Walker - Jr Women’s Track and Field Catherine Beck - Sr Andrea Caruth - Fr Logan Crane - So Andrea Ferri - So Kaleigh Fitzpatrick - Sr Kanku Kabongo - Fr Katy O’Brien - Sr Joyce Uang - Sr Jenna Weir - Sr Baseball 1st Team - Steve Ragonese - Sr 1B/2B 2nd Team - Patrick O’Donnell - Fr P Chase Rose - Fr OF/DH Player of the Year - Steve Ragonese - Sr 1B/2B Rookie of the Year - Chase Rose - Fr OF/DH *NOTE: These were the class years of the athletes during the 2007-2008 spring season.

All-American/All-Region Awards Men’s Track and Field Dave Sorensen - Sr Women’s Track and Field Catherine Beck - Sr Stephanie McNamara - Fr Baseball ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove - Adam Telian P Sailing Kaity Storck - Sr - ICSA/Quantum Women’s Sailor of the Year Lyndsey Gibbons-Neff - Sr - ICSA Crew All-American Women’s Tennis All-American Meghan McCooey - So Julia Browne - So Women’s Lacrosse IWLCA All-Region Team 1st Team - Sarah Williams - Sr A 2nd Team - Chrissie Attura - Jr M Amanda Roberts - Fr M Katie Frisina - Sr D Men’s Lacrosse All-American Honorable Mention - Tucker Merrigan - Sr D All-New England 1st Team - Jordan Yarboro - Jr LSM 2nd Team - Tucker Merrigan - Sr D

Daily File Photo

Junior co-captain Nick Welch and junior Jesse Faller, shown here at last year’s Tufts Invitational, will attempt to lead Tufts to its second straight NCAA Championship Race appearance this season.

Women’s Cross Country Preview

Beck, O’Brien leave behind young but experienced squad by

Carly Helfand

Daily Editorial Board

To say that replacing graduated seniors Cat Beck (LA ’07) and Katy O’Brien (E ’07) would be nearly impossible is an understatement. But despite the loss of the Jumbos’ potent one-two punch, both of whom helped lead the team to a programbest fifth-place finish at the NCAA Championship in 2006 and earned multiple All-American honors over the course of their impressive collegiate campaigns, this season’s Jumbos are still hopeful that they can earn the NCAA bid that eluded them last season. “I’m really looking forward to the October-November time period,” sophomore Stephanie McNamara said. “I know we’re really, really trying to go after getting to Nationals as a team. We were so close last year, and hopefully now that we have a little more depth we can really achieve that goal. I’m looking at Div. III as a huge meet and also at NESCACs — we want to place high there.” And while the Jumbos’ offseason losses were significant, graduation hardly spared their rivals, taking several of New England’s elite runners. Among them were top competitors from many NESCAC schools, including Amherst’s Heather Wilson and Kim Partee, Colby’s Anna King and Bowdoin’s Laura Onderko. “Hopefully, if they take five teams again from New England [for NCAAs,] we have a shot at one of those spots,” coach Kristen Morwick said. “The teams ahead of us, a couple of them graduated a lot of people, so we’re not the

only one who lost significant runners. It’s not like we’re unique in that. We lost Katy and Cat, and obviously they were two of the best, but our top kids will be really competitive with anyone in New England. It’s really a matter of how the new people end up doing.” While last year’s squad struggled to close the gap between the trio of Beck, O’Brien and McNamara and the rest of the pack, this year’s top seven won’t be as top-heavy. The combination of a year of experience for last year’s new runners, the new group of freshmen and the graduations of Beck and O’Brien should make for a more balanced lineup in the coming season. “Katy and Cat were some of the best runners in the nation, not to mention in the conference or on this team,” Morwick said. “A few people have come in that really fit this year, and it’s definitely a more cohesive group. We’ll see how the freshmen kind of fill in the spots — it shouldn’t be as big a difference between 1-2-3 as it was last year, but even still, it hurts losing those two. It’s just going to be a really differentlooking team this year.” Similarly to last season, however, Tufts will boast a young squad, with the incoming freshman class nearly doubling the size of the team. “We have a pretty solid new pack of freshmen,” senior Amy Hopkins said. “We’re all excited about that — to see some new faces and just to get some early and new talent out on the courses. They’re all very strong runners; we’ve been running with them the past couple days or so and getting to know them, and I think they’ll be a great see WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY, page 17