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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2009

THE TUFTS DAILYTUFTSDAILY.COM

see ARTS, page 5

“Alice in Wonderland” takes viewers through a brand new looking glass.

see NEWS, page 3

A semester in review: The Daily takes a look at fall 2009.

In May 2001, the Internet bub-ble had burst, and the economy looked somewhat like it does now. Tufts alum Melissa Broder had just graduated with a major in English but was struggling to find a job that would incor-porate her lifelong passion for writing. With no jobs to be had, Broder decided to enroll in a publishing program in Denver. She embarked on a road trip across the country. Upon com-pletion of the program, Broder drove to San Francisco for a job interview. Though she didn’t get the position, she decided to stay, job or no job. Broder’s journey to the West — and the two years she spent living there — ultimately fueled many of the poems in her new book, “When You Say One Thing But Mean Your Mother,” to be released by Ampersand Books on Feb. 1, 2010. “When You Say One Thing But Mean Your Mother” is both the title of one of the book’s poems and the punch line to the joke, “What is a Freudian slip?” Broder said that she chose the title because she thought it fit the tone of her work. “I felt like it just really cap-tured the ethos of the book,” she said. “It has a sort of Jewish, neurotic vibe, which is definitely present in the book.” Though she said her husband

touts the book as an “NC-17 rated spiritual experience,” Broder said the characters pres-ent in the 90-page book are the main attraction. “The poems are obsession poems. There are a lot of obses-sions about junkies. Somebody is enrolled in a junkie studies program. There’s a camp coun-selor who belongs to the NRA. You get a lot of cult leaders. You get an aging anarchist. You get face tattoos. There’s a tall lady who’s obsessed with laun-dry. There’s adult-onset acne. There’s tripping on Dimatap. There’s reincarnation in a deli. There’s a nose job that takes on a life on its own … not my nose, though,” Broder said. Daniel Nester, author of “How to be Inappropriate,” said of the book, “Melissa Broder’s ebullient, essayistic poems pay attention to sounds and sense ... She addresses her poems to a world of non-poetic people who might find themselves in her poems: people with acne, teen-age waifs and aging anarchists alike. They are cosmopolitan in a playful kind of way. They’re super poems.” Though none of the work in the book dates back to Broder’s time as a Jumbo, she said that her academic experi-ence allowed her to significantly improve her writing. At Tufts, Broder took a creative writing

The number of new H1N1 cases, com-monly known as swine flu, is on the decline at Tufts, mirroring the situation across col-lege campuses nationwide and pointing to the university’s success in containing the pandemic this fall. The American College Health

Association’s (ACHA) weekly survey of an average of over 250 colleges and universi-ties encompassing about 3 million stu-dents reported in the week ending on Nov. 13 the first decrease in the number of new influenza-like illness (ILI) cases with a 27 percent drop from the previous week. The number of ILI cases continued to

The Board of Trustees last month awarded outgoing Secretary of the Corporation Linda Dixon (J ’63, F ’99) the prestigious Hosea Ballou Medal in honor of her service to the university. University President Lawrence Bacow presented the award to Dixon at a trustees weekend reception on Nov. 6. The Board of Trustees awards the Ballou Medal to “recognize members of the Tufts community who have rendered exceptional service for the institu-tion,” according to a press release from the board. Dixon, who has served for 17 years as secretary of the corpora-tion, described the event as emo-tional. “I was blown away,” she said. “I know the significance of it.” Including Dixon, The Board of Trustees has conferred the Ballou Medal to only 14 people in the university’s history. Past recipients include Herbert C. Hoover, the son of U.S. President Herbert Hoover, and former University President Jean Mayer. Board of Trustees Vice Chair William O’Reilly praised Dixon’s dedication to the university. “We know that even before she came to work for the university, she was immensely committed to it,” he said. Dixon’s ties to the university go back decades. Shortly after gradu-ating from Tufts in 1963, she vol-unteered as a chapter adviser to the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority. She

has also been an Alumni Council member since 1968, chairing vari-ous alumni committees, includ-ing the Homecoming and Alumni Weekend Committees. The trustees wanted to recog-nize Dixon’s legacy as she leaves her long-held position. “On her retirement, the board really wanted to say, this is not just someone who worked with us

for a long time,” O’Reilly said. “We wanted to give a warm goodbye to someone who has left a tradition behind her.” Paul Tringale (LA ’82, F ’01) will succeed Dixon on Dec. 15, Tringale said. Dixon was hired as secretary of the corporation in 1992, while she

Executive Director of the Office of Institutional Diversity (OID) Lisa Coleman yesterday announced her resignation effective at the end of December. Coleman plans to take a position at Harvard University next

semester. Coleman’s announcement caps off nearly ten years working in a variety of capacities within the university. She served for almost eight years as the director of the Africana Center before being selected to direct the OID when the university established the office in 2007. “She’s made an enormous contribu-tion,” Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha said. “She was the inaugural holder of this position and for the first time brought some coherence and coordination to diversity efforts at Tufts University.” Bharucha told the Daily that her move to Cambridge will be a loss to the uni-versity but said the administration was pleased that she had an opportunity for a “new challenge.” Coleman also served as a teaching affiliate in the American Studies and Women’s Studies Programs during her tenure at Tufts. She will take on the role of chief diversity officer and special assistant to Harvard President Drew Faust. “My new position offers exciting opportunities for personal and pro-fessional growth, but the decision to leave Tufts after almost a decade has

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VOLUME LVIII, NUMBER 62

Where You Read It First

Est. 1980

Diversity director Coleman plans to leave for Harvard

BY ALEXANDRA BOGUS Daily Editorial Board

see COLEMAN, page 2

COURTESY TUFTS JOURNAL

Lisa Coleman is resigning as the inaugural executive director of institutional diversity to take on a new role at Harvard University.

Board of Trustees awards Dixon esteemed Ballou Medal upon her retirement

BY CORINNE SEGAL Daily Staff Writer

see DIXON, page 2

COURTESY AGB

Outgoing Secretary of Corporation Linda Dixon receives prestigious award honoring her dedicated service to the university.

Former Jumbo explores career in poetry

BY MARISSA CARBERRY Daily Editorial Board

see BRODER, page 4

Following national college trend, swine flu cases decline at Tufts

BY KATHERINE SAWYER Daily Editorial Board

see SWINE FLU, page 2

VIRGINIA BLEDSOE/TUFTS DAILY

Singles in dormitories across campus have been used as isolation rooms for sick students.

2 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS | FEATURES Friday, December 11, 2009

decrease in the following weeks, according to the survey. In the week ending on Nov. 20, the number of new cases dropped 37 percent from the previous week. By Nov. 27, the number of new cases dropped by an additional 69 percent, with only 71 per-cent of schools reporting new cases. Tufts has followed this nationwide trend with the number of new swine flu cases peaking in the first week of November, when Health Service diag-nosed 127 students with ILI, and declining steadily in the following weeks, accord-ing to Health Service Medical Director Margaret Higham. There were 84 new cases in the second week of November, 32 new cases in the third week, and 10 new cases in the week before Thanksgiving, she said. These results are typical of a pandem-ic illness such as swine flu, according to Higham. “That’s what we expect with a pandemic flu. We expect waves of it go up and peak and come down,” she said. “We expect one or two more waves during the winter, but

we are past the peak of the first wave.” Jenny Haubenreiser, ACHA vice presi-dent and leadership development advisor, believes this will be the case but stressed the uncertainty associated with any pan-demic flu. “With any disease like this, we don’t know if there’s a wave,” Haubenreiser told the Daily. “We follow the lead of the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], and they’re taking the leadership role of what this is going to look like.” Tufts has been able to cope with the widespread effects of the flu pandemic so far, despite some difficulties treating the influx of students during the first week of November. “It was a crazy week, as anyone who was in our waiting room would tell you,” Higham said. “We had people sitting on the floor because there just wasn’t room.” Health Service has encouraged sick stu-dents to travel home to self-isolate. In situ-ations where this is unfeasible, the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) has housed sick students who have roommates in vacant singles in dorms across campus. Director of ResLife Yolanda King

indicated that the swine flu housing policy has worked well this fall and will remain unchanged for future waves of the pandemic. King believes that her office has suc-cessfully managed the housing challenges that the flu pandemic has presented. She said that even at the peak of the swine flu season, there was enough housing for everyone with ILI. Although the number of students con-tracting the illness at Tufts has decreased, there are still students with ILI self-isolat-ing in various dorms on campus. “For the flu housing, we’re still using most of [the dorms],” King said. “Anywhere that there’s a single, that’s where we’re assigning students.” As the effects of the illness at Tufts begin to dissipate, Higham stressed the uncer-tainty surrounding the future course of the pandemic at Tufts. “No one can predict how the whole winter’s going to go,” she said. “If we have waves as public health authorities predict, this is the first wave, and there will be more. We don’t know. No one knows how it’s going to behave; no one can say for sure.”

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Tufts sees fewer cases but future of swine flu uncertain SWINE FLU continued from page 1

was working on the search committee to appoint the next university president. At the time, she was a self-employed mar-ket research consultant in the real estate development field. “I was ready for a career change,” she said. As secretary of the corporation, Dixon facilitated the planning for trustee commit-tee meetings and trustees weekends, dur-ing which the board makes administrative decisions. O’Reilly said that Dixon was perfectly suited for the position. “You want those meetings to be productive and effective, and there’s a tremendous amount of infor-mation which you want to try to communi-cate to the members of the board,” he said. “[It’s] a job that can be done very well if you are highly organized and thoughtful about the management of information, which I think is what she was.”

One of Dixon’s major accomplishments is the digitization of the board’s documents. “We put everything on the Web. It’s highly secure,” she said. “We get very good feedback from the trustees [saying] that it’s effective and user-friendly. We try to help our trustees be as trained and knowledge-able as possible.” O’Reilly praised Dixon for her character, which he said has benefited the board. “She’s a very positive person — unflappable also — when problems arise,” he said. “She set a fantastic tone for the trustees, just the right mix of positive personal warmth, but also seriousness of purpose, given the obli-gations of the trustees.” The trustees wanted to choose a per-son with a Tufts background, according to Dixon. “The decision was made that it would be an internal candidate,” she said. Tringale, Dixon’s successor, formerly served as director of conferences and sum-mer programs, later becoming the director

of commencement. Dixon felt that Tringale fit the position well. “Our backgrounds are very similar,” she said. “He’s marvelously capable, his people skills are fantastic. He has an easy, pleasant, likeable temperament.” Tringale said the board members have impressed him. “They work very well together, they seem to have a good social network, they look like they get along well and enjoy being together and they were certainly working very hard at the meetings I sat in on,” he said. Dixon agreed with Tringale’s assessment and said that she was proud of the board’s devotion to serving the Tufts community and to continually raising its standards. “Tufts deserves the best leaders it can get,” Dixon said. “This board has really concentrated on effective governance — really tried to be a sophisticated board and to govern this university in a really sophisticated way.”

Trustees honor Dixon for her service to the university DIXON continued from page 1

been a very difficult one,” Coleman announced late yesterday afternoon in an e-mail to the Tufts community. “During my time here, I have been very fortunate to work with an exceptional group of colleagues, faculty, students, and staff.” Coleman could not be reached last night for comment. Several administrators will step in to fill the gap left by Coleman’s depar-ture. Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity Jacqueline Hymes will take

over the administrative duties of the OID. Director of Diversity Education and Development in Arts, Sciences and Engineering Margery Davies and Associate Provost Vincent Manno will take over the office’s programming. Bharucha said that the universi-ty plans to search for a permanent replacement but offered no timeframe. He was confident that in the interim, though, the OID would run efficiently. “The transition will be very smooth,” he said. “We have a number of people who can pick up the slack.” Bharucha and Coleman have worked

together this semester in developing the university’s first annual report on diversity, offering a status report on diversity initiatives across Tufts’ campuses. Though the report was scheduled to come out this semester, Bharucha said he will now release it in the spring. Harvard spokesperson Kevin Galvin confirmed Coleman’s plan to move to the university last night but declined to offer any other comment.

— Ellen Kan contributed reporting to this article

Coleman to serve as special assistant to Harvard president COLEMAN continued from page 1

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Passin’ It On This has without a doubt been the longest semester of my college career. For the fated few of us on the Daily’s manag-ing board, it’s become standard to call it an early night if we get to head home before 2 a.m. But that’s for good reason: There was plenty to cover this semester. Our front page featured coverage of items from the administration’s revamped underage drinking rules to its new policy on free-dom of expression. Meanwhile, the mem-bers of the Tufts community again dem-onstrated their engagement and concern with the news going on around them through thoughtful contributions to our op-ed page. (I, for one, found it telling that no reader felt the need to write in on the sex policy, despite the nation’s fleet-ing obsession with it.) And through our editorials, we did our best to shed light on concerns that these issues raised. We urged the administra-tion to confront the campus’ culture of underage drinking at its roots rather than simply employing castigatory policies that could ultimately help bring about

the very type of tragedy that the univer-sity hopes to prevent. We also urged stu-dents to adopt a greater sense of respon-sibility in situations that involve alcohol. We poked holes in the idea that it shows nothing more than blind “political cor-rectness” for a community to reject a flyer making fun of someone’s racial back-ground. We cautioned that any policy that purports to govern free speech with-out guaranteeing it outright is a step in the wrong direction — especially within a community that, time and again, has proven so apt at responding on its own terms to hateful expression. We’ve also been working behind the scenes this fall to bring our Web coverage up to par with that of the nation’s most advanced college news sources. This semester, we created the Daily’s New Media Department; thanks to this addi-tion, we have produced a steady stream of videos and slideshows and have remod-eled our blogs, making them vastly more visually engaging and readable. When Shepard Fairey unveiled a new mural at the campus center, we supplemented our

articles with an online photo slideshow. When the flyer incident hit Tufts, we scampered around campus to compile a video of students weighing in on the issue. When the Task Force on Freedom of Expression released its declaration last month, we included an interactive time-line with links to past articles on the topic. The New Media Department did not accomplish every innovation we had envi-sioned, but there’s always next semester. And judging by the talent and dedication of everyone who will be stepping up next month, the Daily is bound only to get stronger. With these new hands on deck, our readers can expect the Daily and TuftsDaily.com to continue growing, innovating and — most importantly — keeping pace with the constant forward motion of this dynamic campus.

Sincerely,

Giovanni Russonello Editor-in-Chief Tufts Daily

Friday, December 11, 2009 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS | FEATURES 3

COURTESY ERIN BALDASSARIEMILY EISENBERG/TUFTS DAILY

YURI CHANG/TUFTS DAILY MIRIAM ROSS-HIRSCH/TUFTS DAILY

KRISTEN COLLINS/TUFTS DAILY

Semester in ReviewA look at the biggest events of the semester

Soirees undergo alterations Tufts’ big-name undergraduate bashes underwent considerable changes this semester. In a major switch, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate capped Fall Ball attendance at 2,500 and, unlike in previous years, required students to pick up tickets in advance at the campus center. Long lines ensued. Meanwhile, plans for next semester’s Winter Bash call for a dance that will hardly resemble past versions of the event. Instead of the Gantcher Center, the dance will take place at the Sheraton Boston Hotel, and entry will now come with a price tag — likely $10. Programming Board will also announce a new name for the event next month after it held a renaming contest. Tufts’ third major undergradu-ate soiree, Spring Fling, might experience some alterations next semester too, as the Alcohol Task Force considers recommending that the university prohibit stu-dents from carrying alcohol onto the President’s Lawn during the May celebration.

Blame it on the alcohol Students returned this semes-ter to news that the administra-tion was implementing a stricter alcohol policy. Under the new regulations, underage students caught drinking illegally for the first time would be automati-cally placed on level-one dis-ciplinary probation instead of merely receiving a warning, as they would have under the pre-vious policy. The administration convened the Alcohol Task Force over the summer, made up of student rep-resentatives and staff, to make recommendations on the current alcohol policy and alcohol-related issues on campus. In spite of the policy change, the university faced a number of alcohol-related incidents. The annual I-Cruise event in October ended early when the boat captain refused to leave the Boston Harbor due to partici-pants’ excessive drunkenness. Seniors went pub night-less when venue managers ended the first Senior Pub Night in September halfway through in response to exceedingly rowdy behavior. The managers reported cases of students publically uri-nating and attempting indecent exposure. As the administration decided the future of the event, two seniors sought to fill the void, organizing three sold-out “Senior Club Life” events that by most accounts did not feature the unruly behavior seen at Senior Pub Night. At the Senior Class Council’s urging, the administration in November reached a decision to approve two Senior Pub Nights for the spring semester.

Dorm sex Sexual activity in a dorm room while one’s roommate is present moved into the same column as octopus lights and candles this semester. The Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) added a stipulation to its guest policy that prohibited one from engaging in any sex act while one’s roommate is in the room. While some called the limitation an unnecessary encroachment into students’ private lives, oth-ers hailed it as an unfortunate but useful tool roommates could use when talking it out among them-selves fails. Coverage of the change prompt-ed an international media storm, with hundreds of media outlets seizing the news. Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel threw Tufts into the limelight in late-night sketches highlighting the policy change, and an article about the new prohibition shot to the top of CNN.com’s list of most popular stories.

No power Students were left in the dark for nearly a day in October when the power shut off for much of Tufts’ campus. An underground fire about a mile from campus caused the blackout, which also affected thousands in Medford. The outage, which inconve-niently cut into Parents Weekend plans, prompted the deploy-ment of Tufts Emergency Medical Services volunteers, residential assistants and Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) offi-cers to help keep watch.

Trustees, freshman tackle freedom of expression Tufts’ Board of Trustees last month adopted a university-wide Declaration on Freedom of Expression, praising the value of free inquiry and debate but con-veying concerns about expression that hinders the university’s “edu-cational enterprise.” The declaration was the final product from the task force, assembled by University President Lawrence Bacow in January 2008 to pen a policy on freedom of expres-sion. Responses to the declaration were mixed with some praising it and others condemning it for restricting speech. Earlier in the semester, the campus debated free speech on a somewhat smaller level when freshman In-Goo Kwak put up a poster parodying the campaign sign of another freshman running for the TCU Senate. The poster played on common stereotypes of Asian Americans. Kwak said at the time that he mere-ly intended to comment on “the inane atmosphere of political cor-rectness at Tufts.” Kwak, who apologized to the

freshman candidate, went on to run for — and win — a seat on the Committee on Student Life.

H1N1 spreads across campus Lines of students snaked outside the Aidekman Arts Center for Health Service’s flu shot clinic in mid-Sep-tember. Health Service ran out of the 2,100 flu shots before the end of the second day of the clinic, despite having ordered almost double the number of shots than usual. In the two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, the office reported a surge in influenza-like illness cases, though, as the Daily report-ed today, the number of afflicted students has trended down. Health Service urged sick stu-dents who lived nearby to return home while they were ill in an effort to reduce the spread of the virus. Those who did not live in the greater New England area were put in isolation in vacant singles across campus. Health Service was able to secure several small shipments of the H1N1 vaccine but only offered them to

those identified as “high risk” indi-viduals. The university expects a larger shipment of vaccine but is unsure when it will arrive.

Tufts stands on solid footing in economic storm University President Lawrence Bacow began the semester with the news that he was “cautiously optimistic” that Tufts had weath-ered the worst of the economic crisis. As the university reeled from a 25 percent drop in the endow-ment, Trustee Emeritus Bernard Gordon (H ’92) in September pledged $40 million to the School of Engineering. The Daily found that many of Tufts’ offices were standing strong by the end of the semester. The Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) ended fiscal year 2009 with a surplus, largely due to a hike in donations. Dining Services took measures to make more food in-house rather than buying from outside sources. Students relied more on the din-

ing halls than spending money in other on-campus eateries. Other locations frequented by Tufts students managed to stave off significant cut backs during the downturn. The Boston Avenue Boloco branch, which considered its clo-sure “imminent” in the spring, saw a 15 to 16 percent increase in sales this October compared to last year. Tufts United States Postal Service (USPS) branch also withstood threats of closure as the USPS con-sidered shutting the doors of 10 different branches in the Boston area. It will remain open for the time being. Students also learned that Tufts topped the charts as the most expensive school in Massachusetts. Several weeks later, the Daily revealed that Tufts School of Medicine had the highest private tuition among all medical schools in the country.

— by Ben Gittleson, Christy McCuaig, and Ellen Kan

4 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS | FEATURES Friday, December 11, 2009

class every semester, wrote for the Zamboni and had work pub-lished in the now-defunct cam-pus literary magazine Queen’s Head & Artichoke. On the Hill, Broder’s develop-ment as a writer was most influ-enced by the creative writing courses she took. She said that some of the best advice she has ever gotten came from one of her creative writing professors. “[Professor] David Rivard said to me, ‘No one is going to care if you write poetry.’ What he meant was that, since poetry is such a blip on the literary radar screen, you have to do it for the love of it, not for anything else.” After graduating, Broder didn’t do much creative writing for a few years, though she did write arts reviews for, and intern at, The Guardian. Broder believes that many writers go through phases in which they are sup-posed to consume, rather than produce, and that her two years

in San Francisco represented a consumption phase for her. “Sometimes there are periods of life where we just take things in, and these things will bear fruit later,” Broder said. While in San Francisco, Broder worked a number of odd jobs, including one job as a grill cook and another as a canvasser for the Sierra Club. These positions didn’t require her degree from Tufts, but Broder thinks that the experienc-es they provided later inspired portions of her new book. “So much of this first book was really fueled by my experience in San Francisco,” Broder said. “It became food for my creative life.” After two years in San Francisco, Broder decided that she was ready to enter the corporate world. She moved back east to New York, got a job in a publishing house and has worked her way up the ladder ever since. Currently, Broder is a Publicity Manager for Penguin Group — living proof that your first job out of college doesn’t make or break your career.

These days, Broder is a very busy woman. In addition to her demanding day job at Penguin, Broder is the curator of the Polestar Poetry Series, which fea-tures live poetry performances each month at Cake Shop, a bar on the Lower East Side. She is also the Chief Editor of the literary magazine La Petite Zine. Finally, Broder is enrolled in a part-time Masters of Fine Arts program at City College of New York. She also finds time to read and write extensively. Broder said that she writes on the subway every day. For the most part, however, she is able to do it all because she loves it. “Writing is a very joyous thing for me,” Broder said. Broder thinks that because the poetry community is small, it’s important for poets to go out and meet each other, so that they may create opportunities to share their work. “Poets have to find people who are passionate about poetry, peo-ple who make poetry relevant,” Broder said. Broder’s current inspirations range from a live reading by per-formance poet Jayne Cortez to Matthew Rohrer’s book “Rise Up,” to an “inebriated African priest-ess” that she met on the subway. In an e-mail to the Daily, Broder also gave Jumbos interest-ed in poetry the following advice: “Take as many creative writing classes as you can, and don’t stop after you graduate. Go read your work at the Wednesday night open mic at The Cantab on Mass Ave. Spend time at The Grolier poetry bookshop. Get in a car and take spontaneous trips to Walden Pond. Find a community of other people passionate about poetry. If you can’t find that community, grow one.”

Alum and poet had a wide range of jobs leading up to book BRODER continued from page 1

COURTESY MELISSA BRODER

Broder’s upcoming book of poems is full of a diverse range of characters.

Booking Your ResurrectionSELECTED POEM

The antidote began the species. Then came Jim Jones, Jim Bakker and a travel agentin heaven who engrossed you with Mallomarsfor seventeen years.

When you resurfaced at your corner delion 21st and planet Earth, the night Sikhno longer carried Little Debbie’s Snack Cakes.He forgot your face.

You are already forgiven. You know that, don’t you? Once you ate paper in Science class to make people laugh. Love alone, totally sane, illumined you.

—by Melissa Broder, from “When You Say One Thing but Mean Your Mother”

5

Arts & LivingArts & Livingtuftsdaily.com

REBECCA GOLDBERG | ABROADWAY

Los Angeles, I’m yours

I’ve never been the kind of person who falls in love with a place. I love the peo-ple and the memories from the places that I go, but the soil itself isn’t the

important thing. Plus, my parents sold my childhood home two weeks before I started college, and I’ve been something of a nomad ever since. For the past two years, I haven’t really lived anywhere for more than four months (dorm rooms excepted, and no one really feels at home there). So when people ask me if I love LA, if I want to come back, I usually just say I’m neutral. It’s a pleasant place to live most of the time, mostly due to the weather, but it also seems gentle because my housing, car and employment were mostly taken care of before I even landed at LAX. As I learned last summer with my Brooklyn sublet and unpaid internship, cities take on a whole different tenor when you’re broke and struggling. But if your life is already set up and there are a handful of people around that you like spending time with, it’s not hard to live just about anywhere. Could I see myself coming back to LA for a more open-ended stay? Sure I could. To my mild surprise, LA hasn’t really offended me in any way, despite the large grains of truth in the stereotypes about traffic, dieting, struggling actors and Ugg boots. One of my reasons for going “abroad” was to see if I hated LA so much that I couldn’t live here later, but my experience has been positive overall. As a city and as a place to live, LA is generally OK. As a place to look for a job in entertainment, it’s extremely stressful and competitive, but it’s also the one city in America (and maybe the world) that offers such a huge potential for growth and personal impact on the industry. It’s an even trade. So when I say I’m neutral about LA, I’m talking about these things: the practicality of living and working and generally being a grown-up. These are not the things that make me so profoundly sad to leave. LA is one of the few places I’ve ever been where my business and my hobby are one and the same. I’ve talked about TV so much in the last four months that I’m pretty sure ratings analysis is com-ing out of my ears. In a single Monday, I spend 10 hours in a TV production office, then head home for a two hour class on the business of TV, then rush to West Hollywood in order to watch TV with friends. I don’t think I’ve talked about anything else for months. Where else could you be eating out-side on the Fox lot, minding your own business, talking about the “Terminator” franchise with two studio assistants when Summer Glau (who played a Terminator on “The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” 2008-2009) walks by, as if conjured by magic? Where else could your supervisor ask you to dig through some files in a bor-ing cabinet in which you find the stu-dio draft of the pilot script of “Arrested Development” (2003-2006) right there, begging for you to read it? Where else could you be reading an online interview with Joss Whedon about “Dollhouse” when the phone rings, and it’s the “Dollhouse” writers’ office? And they’re wondering if Neil Patrick Harris is there because they want to drop off something? And when the guy comes by with a nondescript manila envelope, he says, “This is from Joss?” You can talk about and watch and interact with television from almost any-where in the world. But you can only interact with it, be a spectator of it, love it, live it and be it here, in Los Angeles.

Rebecca Goldberg is a junior majoring in American studies. She can be reached at Rebecca.Goldberg@tufts.edu

TV MINISERIES REVIEW

A diff erent view through the looking glassRe-imagined classic is picturesque but ignores original plot

SyFy channel’s Nick Willing, who remade “The Wizard of Oz” as the 2007 miniseries “Tin Man,” writes and

directs a trippy new take on Lewis Carroll’s classic stories. In his new two-part mini-series “Alice,” Willing com-bines the stories of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass.” The first half pre-miered Sunday, Dec. 6, and the second part aired the following night. Newcomer Caterina Scorsone, 28, leads the cast of “Alice.” Instead of the curious animated blonde with a pseu-do-British accent and no clue what’s going on (the version that Disney so lovingly gave us), this Alice is grown-up, raven haired and a black-belt in karate. Ass-kicking Alice tumbles through the looking glass attempting to save her boyfriend, Jack, from dark and mysterious men who kidnap him outside her apartment. Clearly, Willing has taken liberties with Carroll’s original story. Alice races through Wonderland searching for Jack and trying to get them both home. Along the way she meets Hatter (Andrew Lee Potts), a clever and endearing Pete Doherty look-alike, and the cowardly White Knight (played by Matt Frewer). They all end up on a quest that will take them up against the evil Queen of Hearts, played by Academy Award-winning actress Kathy Bates. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The Queen of Hearts is a cruel ruler who uses liquid emotions to control her human subjects after they are sucked into Wonderland through the looking glass. As one of the Queen’s minions explains, “If our people don’t feel what they want to feel when they want to feel it, then the whole system breaks

down. Instant gratification is a very complex business.” Though this creative plot-twist sug-gests the deeper political or social commentary of rulers controlling peo-ple by toying with their emotions, the idea is never clearly developed. It’s as if Willing just wanted to keep the story

on a wholly anecdotal level, without adding to the multiple levels of alle-gory found in Carroll’s works. This dark re-imagining of Alice’s adventures surprises the viewer with visually captivating moments. The

BY ROBYN LINDENBERG Contributing Writer

see ALICE, page 6

SMALLSCREENSCOOP.COM

Kathy Bates, thank you for wearing clothes this time.

MOVIE REVIEW

Eastwood’s ‘Invictus’ tackles apartheidFreeman shines in portrayal of Nelson Mandela

Clint Eastwood is hunting for yet another Oscar nomination this year. In these final days of December,

Eastwood releases his newest film “Invictus,” a story about the beginning of Nelson Mandela’s presidency that has the potential to garner numerous awards this season. The film follows the story of the South African rugby team, the Springboks, in a nation that is recovering from racial apartheid and adjusting to its first black president, Mandela. The struggles of apartheid through South Africa are obvious in the film — mem-bers of Nelson’s mixed-race presiden-

tial staff regard each other with hostil-ity, black servants still work in white households and the majority of the black population continues to live in impoverished shanty villages. The film begins in 1994, just as racial apartheid ends and the African National Congress wins the country’s first democratic elections. At this point, Mandela has recently been released from a 27-year stint in prison and has begun his tenure as South African president. From the onset of the film, Mandela is formulating plans about how to mend the racial big-otry that apartheid has engraved in society. In the first moments of the film, a news commentator aptly com-ments on Mandela’s mission through the movie: “He can win an election, but can he run a country?” Morgan Freeman brilliantly por-trays Mandela. He accurately embod-ies the national leader, from the dis-tinct South African accent down to his ever-present, slight smile. In the film, Freeman lives up to the difficult task of depicting one of the most influen-

tial figures of the 20th century. Uncertain of how else to unite the country and repair the results of a hate-filled history, Nelson looks to the sport of rugby. Rugby is a critical aspect of the culture of the minor-ity white population in South Africa. However, the more populous black society despises this white man’s game. The Springbok rugby team includes only one black player in a nation with a predominantly black population. Although rugby repre-sents yet another separation of inter-ests between black and white culture, Mandela sees the sport’s camaraderie as a means to unite a broken nation. Matt Damon plays the captain of the Springbok rugby team, Francois Pienaar. In the film, Damon leaves his past aliases of Jason Bourne and Will Hunting to embody an athlete who served as a national leader in South Africa. Damon does an excellent job portraying the somewhat laconic yet inspiring athletic hero. Pienaar, look-

BY ALEXA ROSENTHALL Daily Staff Writer

see INVICTUS, page 6

Alice

Starring Caterina Scorsone, Kathy Bates, Tim Curry, Andrew Lee PottsRe-Airs Sunday at 5 & 7 p.m. on SyFy

Invictus

Starring Morgan Freeman, Matt DamonDirected by Clint Eastwood

6 THE TUFTS DAILY ARTS & LIVING Friday, December 11, 2009

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“Brave New World’ on LSD” production design proves inventive and makes up for some of the slower periods of storytelling during the show. Beautiful set design and creepy visuals do not make a production work, though. With Tim Curry playing Dodo, Colm Meaney as the King of Hearts and Harry Dean Stanton as Caterpillar, the acting is as skill-ful as one would expect from such actors in the iconic parts. Unfortunately, the plot moves slowly and fails to capture the viewer’s emotional investment with well-developed rising action and suspense. “Alice” turns the captivat-ing story of a young girl on an explorative journey into a fem-inist jaunt into a druggy alter-nate reality. Willing does not even bring up Carroll’s com-

mentary on multiple religious, political and social problems of his day, let alone update these themes for the modern day. If you like fantasy, science-fiction visuals, or are other-wise obsessed with the world through the looking glass, this miniseries is absolutely worth-while. The show is not excel-lently crafted or ingeniously imagined, but then again, entertainment is about what-ever takes someone on a ride. So let’s snub our noses at superiority and kill the need for pleasure to ever be guilty. “Alice” might make people stare in awe at the miniseries’ physical beauty, but there’s not really anything lying under the surface. For the niche group of viewers who want to take a trip to a fairly fantastical won-derland, it just might be a few hours well spent.

‘Alice’ leaves out social com-mentary of Carroll’s original ALICE continued from page 5

ing to mend his team, grate-fully receives Mandela’s guid-ance. Both Pienaar and Mandela see immense opportunity in the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Pienaar hopes to reinstate the credibility of South African rugby, while Mandela seeks a cultural proxy to unite South African citizens. The script of the film is very well written and direct-ed, unraveling the complicat-ed tensions between race and class. Even though the racial apartheid has ended, and a black president governs the nation, there are still deep-rooted prejudices instilled in the society. Many scenes in the film highlight the white popula-tion’s disdain for Mandela. In one scene, Pienaar’s fam-ily disparages Mandela as Pienaar announces his inten-tion to donate a portion of his salary to charity. While the Pienaar family belittles their South African president, the black housemaid surrep-titiously shakes her head in disapproval. Before Mandela can affect real social change in the nation, race tensions perpetuate, even in seeming-ly benign households. While the film brilliant-ly portrays the effects the Springbok rugby team had on South Africa in unifying citi-zens, the lack of coverage of the majority black population is disappointing. Eastwood includes only a few shots of black shantytowns, highlight-ing the profound poverty of

the nation. The film overlooks the immediate needs of the destitute, most of whom do not care about rugby, but about bettering their stan-dards of living. Mandela, someone who did

a lot to improve the social and economic plights of the black population in Africa, might be regarded as someone who merely aided South Africa’s rugby team to win the world championship.

SCIFIWIRE.COM

Yep, there’s our miniseries, over already.

Eastwood’s latest film downplays struggles of black South Africans post-apartheid

FILMICAFE.COM

Morgan Freeman really is Nelson Mandela’s doppelgänger.

INVICTUS continued from page 5

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and three turnovers, the Longhorns were able to move to 13-0. Equally as puzzling as its offensive struggles was Texas’ mismanagement in the wan-ing moments of the game. With under 10 seconds left, McCoy inexplicably rolled out and calmly hurled the ball out of bounds as the clock ran out. Though the Longhorns ultimately got the ball back with one second left, set-ting up Lawrence’s heroics, McCoy’s calmness indicates not poise, but simply a lack of awareness not characteristic of one of the country’s best quarterbacks. Against Alabama, Texas will face the nation’s second-best total defense, a unit that has given up just 16 total touch-downs and held opposing offenses to under 10 points six times. But luckily for Texas, its rushing defense, which has limited opposing backs to a shade under two yards per carry, is the best in the country and should give Ingram fits all evening. Both coaches boast impres-sive résumés that should intangibly help their respec-tive teams. Alabama coach Nick Saban has done a great

job motivating the Crimson Tide after his squad dropped its final two games of the 2008 season to finish No. 6 in the country. Mack Brown, on the other hand, has won at least 10 games each year between 2001 and 2009, the longest such active streak in college football. Assuming Colt McCoy turns in a performance indicative of his decorated career — in which he recently became the most winning quarterback in college football history — and not the egg he laid against Nebraska, the BCS National Championship Game prom-ises to be a thrilling contest. Ultimately, the game truly is a national championship, as it features the top two rush-ing defenses in the country and two of the nation’s best offenses. Despite the fact that Cincinnati, Texas Christian University and Boise State fin-ished the season undefeated, the Longhorns and Alabama certainly deserve to be com-peting on college football’s biggest stage. And despite the fact that Texas, with McCoy leading the way, has all the talent to be worthy of the national title, recent results indicate that the Tide should roll in January.

Two of nation’s top defenses will be on display in title game INSIDE NCAA continued from page 1 2

MCT

Sophomore running back and Heisman Trophy hopeful Mark Ingram gives the Crimson Tide a substantial edge as it heads into the national championship against Big 12 champion Texas.

10 THE TUFTS DAILY SPORTS Friday, December 11, 2009

While we’re away: A look at how Tufts’ While we’re away: A look at how Tufts’

Hockey | With Barchard in net, can win streak continue over break? In a high-paced and physical sport like hockey, momentum is everything. If everything is going right for a team, it can even appear as though the ice is tilted. Lately, things have been going that way for the Jumbos, as they have rattled off four straight wins — just one shy of their longest streak from last year — to improve to 4-2-1 overall. As the team enters winter break, Tufts is hoping that the holiday cheer will spread to its performance on the ice as it looks to keep that streak going in six contests over the break, five of which are against NESCAC/ECAC East teams. “It’s a great opportunity to get some league points,” senior tri-captain Dave Antonelli said. “The good thing about break is that we can focus on nothing but hockey.” So far, the Jumbos’ season has been highlighted by December wins over New England College and St. Anselm, as well as a 3-3 season-open-ing tie against national powerhouse Middlebury. But for all the stellar play, it has been the perfomance of sophomore goal-tender Scott Barchard that has stood out above the rest. Last week, Barchard was awarded the NESCAC Player of the Week, as he anchored the Jumbos to two weekend wins, stopping 115 of the 119 shots he faced. His .953 save percentage is the

best of any starter in the conference and his 322 saves are by far the most. “Our [defense] has been pretty banged up lately and we’ve been putting some guys back to help out,” Antonelli said. “We don’t want [Barchard] to have to make 60 saves every game. But the whole team plays with significant confidence because we know we have a guy who can steal a game and pick us up when we make a mistake.” The Jumbos will first take on Conn. College Friday afternoon at home before taking a break for the rest of 2009. The Camels currently sit in last in the conference standings and, at 1-6 overall, have already lost to New England College 2-0, a squad that the Tufts downed 3-1 on Dec. 4. When they resume play against Babson on Jan. 8, the Jumbos will be facing a string of six games in nine days, including three consecutive away contests. Back-to-back weekend games at NESCAC foes Hamilton and Amherst should be crucial in determin-ing how the conference will shape up in the new year. If the Jumbos can keep rolling like they have been, they could find them-selves near the top of the standings in one of the toughest Div. III conferences in the nation.

SCOTT TINGLEY/TUFTS DAILY

Senior forward Julia Baily and the women’s basketball team have a trip to Daytona Beach, Fla. scheduled for the end of December.

ALEX DENNETT/TUFTS DAILY

Freshman defender Trevor John and the hockey team have six games on tap during the winter recess, including five against NESCAC/ECAC East foes.

While most Tufts students will spend winter break celebrating the holidays and recovering from the grind of the fall semester, the women’s track team will be hard at work preparing for the indoor season. Coach Kristen Morwick has given her team a workout program to follow during the upcoming weeks that will keep the runners, throwers and jumpers in shape for the first big meet of the new year — the Tufts Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 16. “We are all heading home after finals,” senior co-captain Andrea Ferri said. “But we all have to do condition-ing stuff — weight lifting, running, all of those things, to make sure that we’re prepared once the season starts. We’re all going to work hard, and everyone is

going to be anxious to see how that pays off once we get back to campus.” The Jumbos will be back on the Hill on Jan. 11, more than a week before many of their classmates head back to campus for the start of the spring semester. Aside from the home meet, Tufts will run in the Dartmouth Relays on Jan. 8 and Jan. 10. But that early return could benefit the team because it will be able to focus entirely on getting ready to host the Invitational, rather than having to bal-ance its practice time with a hefty work-load. “We’re all going to be excited for that first race, and it’ll be good to be able to devote time just to getting ready for the start of the season,” Ferri said.

Women’s Track and Field | Team will continue training hard during winter break

The nationally ranked No. 19 women’s basketball team will face some unique challenges this winter break as it looks to continue its hot start to the 2009-10 season. Of the 6-1 Jumbos’ probable next four opponents, none has appeared on the team’s schedule since 2002. At the end of that stretch is a two-game swing at the Land of Magic Classic in Daytona Beach, Fla., in which Tufts will have to come off a two-week layoff and take on non-conference oppo-nents from northwest Pennsylvania and southeast Wisconsin. “Florida is going to really test us as a team because we’re get-ting on a plane without practicing, flying down there and playing a game,” junior tri-captain Vanessa Miller said. “It’s going to put a lot on us all individually to work as hard as we can over break. “It’ll be nice to see teams that we haven’t seen yet in a non-NCAA [Tournament] setting. We’re all excited to branch out a little bit.” Things will certainly begin to feel a bit more familiar for the Jumbos

once the calendar flips to 2010. Tufts opens the new year with a Jan. 5 showdown against New England heavyweight and nation-al No. 17 Emmanuel in Cousens Gym, before renewing its rivalry with Bates in a non-conference matchup on Jan. 9. Those two contests will be the Jumbos’ final tune-ups for their all-important slate of NESCAC games, which begins with road trips to Williams and Middlebury the week-end before classes resume. In addition to preparing for the start of its conference schedule, the Jumbos will spend the win-ter recess on milestone watch. Shooting over 50 percent from beyond the arc this season, junior tri-captain Colleen Hart needs four three-pointers to tie the Tufts career mark of 139 set by Val Krah (LA ‘07). Meanwhile, coach Carla Berube is closing in on the pro-gram’s all-time wins record, a mark she’ll surpass if her team runs the table over its eight-game holiday slate.

Women’s basketball | New opponents will prep Jumbos for NESCAC slate

While the winds thrash and the snow blankets Tufts’ campus, the women’s swimming and diving team will be in sunny Florida over winter break. For the Jumbos, this trip serves as more of a strength-builder than a luxurious vacation away from the blistering cold of New England. From Jan. 5-15, Tufts will embark on a 10-day adventure full of two-a-days, constant laps around the pool and grueling land workouts at the Deerfield Beach Aquatic Center in Deerfield, Fla. “It’s always a crucial part of the sea-son,” senior tri-captain Lyndsey York said. “It’s really important because it’s the only thing we’re doing. It’s really intense and all you think about is swimming. You don’t have classes or homework or anything else going on at Tufts that gets in the way of practices. It’s really important to help us get in shape but we come out of it a lot stronger.” Last year, it was estimated that each Jumbo swam 85,000 meters when the squad went to Puerto Rico, and this season’s trip should be no exception in terms of strenuous conditioning and two-a-days. For a 2-2 unit that has already exceeded last year’s dual-meet loss total, Tufts welcomes the training trip with open arms.

“After our training trip we should be ready to go,” York said. “It’s really important to have that focus in those few weeks during the winter break dedicated to swimming, because it really sets the tone for the rest of the season.” Upon returning to Medford, the Jumbos will square off against NESCAC rivals Williams and Wesleyan in Middletown, Conn. Given that Tufts has already fallen to conference opponents Middlebury and Conn. College, the Jan. 16 meet should give the Jumbos a good idea of how 2010 will play out. Williams finished first at last year’s NESCAC championships and fourth in the NCAA National Championships. If the dedication Tufts displays on the training trip is any indication, though, the Jumbos will be just fine. “I think the first few meets were good, but it’s really important for everyone to look forward and keep a positive mental attitude,” York said. “It’s been tough coming off of the 8-1 season; it’s been a little more difficult this year. It’s important to keep work-ing hard; we’ve done a really good job so far, so it can only improve from here. We’re in good shape right now.”

Women’s Swimming and Diving | Florida awaits Jumbos in annual training trip

— by Sapna Bansil

— by Daniel Rathman

— by Alex Prewitt — by Evan Cooper

Friday, December 11, 2009 THE TUFTS DAILY SPORTS 11

ETHAN FRIGON | THE BEARD ABIDES

Give it to Big Suh!

The idiots who vote for the Heisman Trophy just might make the right decision this year. When the ques-tion comes up as to who is the

“most outstanding player in college foot-ball” (the criteria given by the Downtown Athletic Club to Heisman voters), every-one who seems reasonably knowledgeable about the game seems to be unequivocal in their final decision — it’s Ndamukong Suh (pronounced en-de-ma-ken soo, I think), the 6-foot-4, 305-pound defensive tackle from the University of Nebraska. Big Suh finished with 82 tackles, an absurd number for an interior defensive lineman and 12 more than any other defensive lineman, as well as 12 sacks, another number that’s atypically high for someone whose primary job it is to stop the inside run. He also leads Nebraska’s defense (which is ninth in the country in yards allowed per game and second in points per game — not too shabby) in tackles, tackles for a loss, sacks, blocked kicks (Suh’s blocked three by himself) and quarterback hurries. Everyone who watches him play is blown away by how much he visibly affects every play. At a position where it is hard to stand out, either in the eyes of the casual football fan or statistically, Suh has accomplished both. Again, just about every football talking head acknowledges Suh is the best, most outstanding player in college football. And at the same time, they all acknowledge that Suh probably won’t win the Heisman — and they have both history and common sense on their side. Without fail, the Heisman is won almost every year by a quarterback or running back, as 16 of the last 17 have come from either position. The last defensive player to win the Heisman was Charles Woodson in 1997, and he had the benefit of returning kicks as well. I’m pretty sure Suh would be the first player to win the Heisman without scoring a touchdown in that season (ends scored touchdowns in the 1940s, right?). The love given to running backs and quarterbacks makes sense. They’re the ones who put up the statistics, who get the ball virtually every down on offense and who score the points. Anyone can tell when a running back or quarterback is playing well. It’s the easy choice, and it’s the choice Heisman voters invariably make. So, Big Suh’s got the RB/QB factor going against him. He’s also got two things going in his favor, though. The first is that this has been a particu-larly dull year for Heisman candidates. Of the other finalists invited to New York, none are up to typical Heisman stan-dards. Running back Toby Gerhart had an impressive year but plays for 8-4 Stanford, which lost to Wake Forest in the season’s second week. Alabama Running back Mark Ingram meanwhile was held to 30 yards on 16 carries on national television under two weeks ago. Quarterbacks Tim Tebow of Florida and Colt McCoy of Texas have struggled might-ily compared to last year. If either had posted their 2008-09 numbers this year, he would have run away with the award. The second factor in Suh’s favor is his dominant performance against Texas in the nationally televised Big 12 Championship game. Suh finished with 12 tackles, 4.5 sacks and two quarterback hurries and was within a last-second field goal of lead-ing Nebraska to the upset of the season. And voters love a dominant recent per-formance (the memory of Suh bringing fellow Heisman finalist McCoy down to the turf five times), almost as much as they love quarterbacks and running backs. Suh really has a better-than-average shot at winning the Heisman, much bet-ter than he would in an average year. I’m hopeful, but not optimistic, that Heisman voters will make the right decision and honor uncommon greatness from such an unheralded position.

Ethan Frigon is a junior majoring in eco-nomics and international relations. He can be reached at Ethan.Frigon@tufts.edu.

Fencing | Jumbos to experience roster overhaul over break Already having experienced a chang-ing roster and a reshuffled lineup due to studying overseas and graduation, the 1-3 fencing team will be faced with more changes as fencers come and go in the next semester. “One graduated, two are abroad and two had academic advisors recom-mend they not do it, so we’ve been starting a bunch of new people,” sophomore Sarah Danly said. Currently, five starters are first years, two of whom have never fenced before. Abigail Hepworth, a freshman, experienced substantial success in a Dec. 3 match against Harvard, one of the top fencing teams in the nation.

Hepworth won two out of three épée bouts, including one against a class A fencer. Danly, a sabreuse, has been one of the bright spots on the team so far, winning all nine of her bouts in the Jumbos’ opening weekend Nov. 22, in which they beat Yeshiva 16-11 and lost to Wellesley and Stevens Tech. Behind Danly, the sabre squad won its weapon in each match. Following the break, the roster will face more turnover heading into the first conference meet on Jan. 23 at Boston College. “[Juniors] Caccy Bowlus and Soraya Alivandi — I think they plan on return-

ing,” Danly said. “We also have [junior] Georgia Ranes going abroad in the spring, which is when the majority of our big meets are.” Aside from the Boston College meet, the Jumbos will attend the Brandeis Invitational and host New York University the following weekend. As a relatively new squad, Tufts will work to get in some extra practice over break before the schedule gears up. “We might come back early to prac-tice for the first time in a while,” Danly said. “We might be training over the break.”

winter teams will keep busywinter teams will keep busy

Men’s Basketball | Jumbos stay local hoping to turn season around For the first time in three years, the Tufts men’s basketball team will not be taking a trip anywhere out of the region over break. They won’t be traveling to La Verne, Calif. for the SCIAC Classic like last year or driv-ing down to Wilkes-Barre, Penn. for the Wilkes Barre Challenge. Instead, the Jumbos plan on using the winter recess for the same function most other Tufts students do: a break. “Over the past three years, we’ve played in a tournament over break, and we’ve traveled a lot, and we’ve struggled coming back from break. So this year we want to change that up a little bit and keep it more local,” senior tri-captain Jon Pierce said. Instead of attending a holiday season or New Year’s tournament, the Jumbos are preaching a more individualistic approach to this year’s break from class. “Over the next two weeks guys are going to get into the gym on their own and work on some of the things we’ve talked about,” Pierce said. Players will have time to reflect individu-

ally on what has been a tough season so far, with the Jumbos starting off 2-6. They don’t resume play again until Jan. 5, when they will host local foe MIT. The contest against the Engineers is the first of three non-conference match-ups for the Jumbos coming in the week after break, the others coming on Jan. 7 at UMass Boston and at home against Clark on Jan. 12. That same weekend, Tufts will open up conference play with games at Williams and Middlebury. Following the opening slate of confer-ence games, the Jumbos will play Western New England College at home before most students arrive back from their break. Still, the Jumbos are trying to focus on the immediate future and the adjustments they must make, especially late in games, to turn this still-early season around. “Coming back from break New Year’s Day, we want to have four focused prac-tices and get ready for MIT,” Pierce said.

Men’s Swimming | Matchup with Williams looms Coming off an impressive second-place finish at last weekend’s MIT Invitational, the men’s swimming and diving team will travel to Fort Lauderdale over winter break to continue its training regimen. Over the course of the 12-day trip to Florida, the team hopes to develop group cohesion and endurance, in addition to a dash of historical perspective by spending a few hours at the International Swimming Hall of Fame. “The Fort Lauderdale trip is when we get the bulk of our training done for the season, in terms of working out, endur-ance and stroke work,” senior quad-captain Matt Salzberg said. “But it’s also where we develop a personality as a team. It’s really fun, being down there with 40 awesome guys.” The Jumbos will have over a month off before their next meet, which takes place on Jan. 16 against Wesleyan and Williams

in Middletown, Conn. The team will need every last bit of endurance and camara-derie it can muster to challenge the Ephs, who have won seven out of the last eight NESCAC Championships, including last year when they finished ahead of the second-place Jumbos. The Ephs are the benchmark in the NESCAC, the team to beat, and it will take a mighty effort from the Jumbos to steal the crown and bring it back to Medford once Tufts returns to Massachusetts. “We need to come out strong in the meet on Jan. 16,” senior quad-captain Rob Delean said. “Williams is our big competi-tion in conference. We need to show disci-pline [over the next month] and know that even though we aren’t racing, everyone else is training hard. We need to come out pre-pared and excited to take a run at them.”

Skiing | Club squad to participate in two early races in 2010 Though the season has yet to begin, the Tufts ski team is raring to go. And over winter break, it will get a chance to test its mettle in the first races of the 2010 season. The team will have its first races on Jan. 9 and 10 at Sunday River in Newry, Maine. Afterward, the Jumbos will go to New Hampshire’s Waterville Valley for about a week to train and work with coaches there before another race, to be held at a currently undeter-mined location, the next weekend. “This year is weird in that in general we go to Waterville and go straight into our first race weekend,” junior co-captain Brian Bresee said. “This year we are actually having two races earlier

than usual.” The Jumbos will be looking to improve upon last year’s season, in which they came just short of reaching nationals despite a strong showing. The team is hoping to reach that goal this season. “Last year we had a pretty young team, with three of our top skiers as sophomores,” Bresee said. “At Regionals we were qualified for Nationals on the first day but got knocked out on the second day. What we are hoping to do this year is take this team and develop a little bit more and send a team to nationals.” Tufts will be relying on those three now-juniors, Bresee, Tom Valentin and

Arlin Ladue, who is also the Executive New Media editor of the Daily, to help get it over the hump and into Nationals. Seniors Pat Tonelli, who was abroad during last season, and Greg Hering should also be key contribu-tors this year. These five should be the Jumbos’ top finishers this season. Team members have been prepar-ing for their season throughout the semester, running two dry land prac-tices a week in which they work on conditioning. And with the win-ter weather coming, the Jumbos are ready to roll on down the hill in just a few weeks.

Men’s Track and Field | Team to return early to prepare The men’s track and field team will return from winter break early to prepare for the start of the spring semester, which kicks off with the first of two Tufts Invitationals on Jan. 16 on the indoor track at the Gantcher Center. This will be the first meet for many of the Jumbos, so the athletes will look to start out the season strong. “We had some of our guys run this past weekend in our alum-ni meet, but a good number still haven’t put the spikes on yet,” senior quad-captain Nick Welch said. “The early return period and the meet that we have during that time will be a chance for the bulk of the team to get going with this year’s season.” During the team’s opening meet, the Jumbos will look to prepare for the start of their season and focus on coming together as a team. “The biggest goal that I have for the program between now and when classes start for the second semester is to really come together and solidify and start to really set the tone for what the 2010 team will be,” Welch said. “The track team is really frag-mented during the fall, with about half of us doing cross country and half the team getting ready in fall track, but both of those two seg-ments of the team had unbeliev-able falls, especially in terms in looking of ahead to the track sea-son,” he continued. “There is a lot of momentum going into the season, and we’re already several steps ahead of where we were at this point this year.” The team’s return will serve as a time for the members of cross country to unite with the track team and begin to realize their combined strength for the 2010 season.

— by Ethan Landy

— by Lauren Flament — by Ben Kochman

— by Alex Lach

— by Jeremy Greenhouse

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INSIDE The Beard Abides 11

Winter Break Preview 10SportsSports

INSIDE NCAA FOOTBALL

Conference title outcomes shed light on favorite for national championship

BY ETHAN LANDY AND ALEX PREWITT Daily Editorial Board

On paper, the BCS title game should be one for the ages, with the undefeated and top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide set to square off against the No. 2 and likewise unblemished Texas Longhorns on Jan. 7. But if you look at both sides’ recent results, it isn’t hard to see why the Tide is the favorite to come away with its first national championship since 1992. Alabama looked every bit the part of national champions in its 32-13 demolition of previously undefeated and then-No. 1 Florida, the current holder of the BCS trophy. In win-ning its record 22nd SEC title, the Crimson Tide dominated every facet of the game, finishing with almost 500 total yards and holding quar-terback Tim Tebow and the Gators’ offense to a season-low 13 points. Crimson Tide quarterback Greg McElroy led his team to 32 points, 12 more points than any other team scored against Florida’s defense this season, and Heisman Trophy finalist Mark Ingram ran for 113 yards and three touchdowns, rebounding from his worst performance of the year versus Auburn the week before. Thus far this season, Ingram

has totaled an absurd 1542 ground yards, including a blistering 6.2 yards per carry to go along with 15 touchdowns. But just as impres-sive has been McElroy’s efficiency this season. The junior and first-year starter, who was 28-0 as a starter in high school and college, has a 142.0 quarterback rating and a 61.1 per-cent completion percentage. He will be turned to early and often in the BCS National Championship Game should Ingram be stifled. Given Texas’ miserable perfor-mance against Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship last weekend, Alabama should have no trouble rolling to its 13th national title. Senior quarterback Colt McCoy, in his worst game of the year, finished with three interceptions and just 184 yards in the Longhorns’ 13-12, last-second win. Despite McCoy’s 5.1 yards-per-completion average, senior kicker Hunter Lawrence was able to deliver the game-winning field goal as time expired. Overall, Texas had just 202 yards of total offense, 153 fewer than its punters accumulated. But thanks to a stiff defense, which held the Cornhuskers’ offense to 106 yards

see INSIDE NCAA, page 9

Looking back at the top sports moments of the semester

Oct. 10 | Football wins Homecoming thriller over Bowdoin. With one deft swing of his left leg, sophomore kick-er Adam Auerbach delivered the game-winning field goal in over-time, sending the Jumbos to a dra-matic 25-22 victory over NESCAC rival Bowdoin on Homecoming. Auerbach, who kicked a 37-yard field goal with 27 seconds remain-ing in the fourth quarter to send the contest into overtime, calmly booted the 35-yarder, setting off a raucous celebration on the Tufts sideline. For his efforts, Auerbach was named the NESCAC Special Teams Player of the Week. The sophomore’s heroics were set up after a stingy Jumbos defense held the Polar Bears to a missed field goal on Bowdoin’s first overtime possession and lim-ited quarterback Oliver Kell to just 219 yards through the air. Tufts’ defensive unit totaled three sacks and was guided by senior quad-captain Tom Tassinari, who had a game-high 12 tackles. Collectively, Tufts accumulat-ed 266 yards on the ground, led by junior Pat Bailey’s 141. Senior quarterback Tom McManama had one of his best outings, hurling for two crucial touchdowns down the stretch. The Homecoming victory was the highlight of an otherwise bleak season for the Jumbos, who fin-ished 2-6 overall, ending the year with five straight losses. But thanks to Auerbach and Tufts’ defense, the Oct. 10 win over Bowdoin was an afternoon to remember.

Oct. 17 | Browne and McCooey go back-to-back. Julia Browne and Meghan McCooey had only played together as a doubles duo for less than one month when they went to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Small College Championships a year ago. Despite their relative inex-perience, Browne and McCooey blitzed through the tournament

field and captured the first nation-al title of any kind in program his-tory. This year, with the weight of being the defending champions, they did it again. Seeded second in the field of the top eight doubles teams in the nation, Browne and McCooey were virtually unchallenged en route to their second consecu-tive ITA crown, beating the TCNJ pairing of Jackie Shtemberg and Felice Trinh in the final 7-5, 6-3. In the process, the Jumbos’ duo became just the second repeat champions in the history of the tournament. The victory ended a tremen-dous fall campaign for Browne and McCooey, who also added an ITA New England region title to their extensive résumé on Sept. 20. With the 2010 spring schedule still ahead, the duo boasts a lifetime mark of 35-6 in dual-match and tournament play.

Nov. 8 | Field hockey wins first NESCAC title. On Oct. 17, the field hockey team took a perfect record into a Parents’ Day showdown against Trinity and came away with a deflating overtime loss, its first regular-season defeat in over two calendar years. But as many could have predicted, the two teams that separated themselves from the rest of the conference pack this season met again in the NESCAC title game on Nov. 8 in Hartford, Conn. Tufts didn’t miss out on its chance at redemption. Behind two penalty-corner goals by junior defender Jess Perkins, the Jumbos exacted revenge on the Bantams, capturing their first-ever NESCAC crown with a 3-2 victory on Trinity’s home field. With the win, coach Tina McDavitt’s squad became the first Tufts fall-season team to win its conference cham-pionship since men’s cross coun-try in 2005. Against First Team All-American goalkeeper Gina Dinallo, who had allowed just eight goals in her pre-vious 13 games, the Jumbos man-aged three first-half tallies before

staving off a Bantams comeback bid in the second half. They went on to reach the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year.

Nov. 14 | Volleyball clinches New England crown in new Cousens Gym. The New England Regional final was the perfect storm for the Tufts volleyball team. A chance at revenge against Williams — which it lost to in the NESCAC Tournament final — and a shot at getting to the NCAA Elite Eight were on the line Nov. 14 at Cousens Gym. The Jumbos accomplished both goals and moved onto the NCAA quarterfinals for the first time in school history. Tufts dominated in the win, winning the first two sets 25-13 and 25-16 before edging out the Ephs in a close third set 25-23.

The Jumbos closed out the win-ning set thanks in large part to the play of Regional MVP junior Dawson Joyce-Mendive, who had four of her team-high 14 kills in the final set. New England Women’s Volleyball Association Player of the Year senior Dena Feiger was also instrumental in the victory, finish-ing with 10 digs and 43 assists. The New England regional title was the first championship cel-ebrated in the newly renovated Cousens Gym. The facility received a major facelift over the summer, including a 90-degree rotation of the basketball court.

Nov. 21 | Faller and Wilfert run to All-American honors in cross country. Though the men’s and women’s cross country team each sent only one runner to the NCAA Div. III Championships in

Cleveland, Ohio, those individuals certainly represented the Jumbos well. With over 50 members of both teams out to cheer them on, senior Jesse Faller and junior Amy Wilfert both finished in the top 35 of the race, earning All-American status for the season. Faller became a three-time All-American thanks to his eighth-place showing. It was the best finish for a Tufts runner at the event since Rod Hemingway (LA ’98) came in sixth place in 1997. Wilfert earned the second All-American status of her career at Tufts after her time of 22:46.3 on the 6K course. She was also an All-American in indoor track last season as a part of the distance medley relay team that won the NCAA title in the event.

BY ETHAN LANDY, SAPNA BANSIL AND ALEX PREWITTDaily Editorial Board

ANDREW MORGENTHALLER/TUFTS DAILY

Sophomore Adam Auerbach delivers the game-winning field goal in the football team’s overtime win over Bowdoin on Homecoming Day.

CHAMP

Alex L.

Alex P.

Daniel R.

Dave H.

Evan C.

Ethan L.

Jeremy G.

Michael S.

Phil D.

Sapna B.

Steve S.

EDITORS’ CHALLENGE: BCS Edition

ROSE SUGAR FIESTA ORANGE