After squeaking by the Baltimore Ravens in the divisional playoffs and crushing the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC title game, the New England Patriots are going back to the Super Bowl, their sixth trip since the 2001 season.This one is different, however, accompanied by a real sense of urgency (and ...
Finals are happening and they're clearly horrible. While you struggle through those papers and those pesky in-class exams, think forward to the beauty that will be winter break. It’s super long though, so the Daily Arts department has come up with a list of things you need to hide from your parents. ...
The lower patio of the campus center has seen its share of events and protests over the years. In fact, its very opening was met with a protest back in 1998. According to an Oct. 6, 1998 article in the Daily, a group of students gathered at the Hotung patio's opening ceremony to object to the university's ...
Tufts Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES) hosted its first annual Civil-Military Relations Conference this past Friday and Saturday. The conference, titled “In Case of Emergency: Civil-Military Relations and Disaster Response,” featured a panel of disaster relief professionals.“We ...
Tufts celebrated Veterans Day with a ceremony yesterday, beginning at 11 a.m. with Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) cadets and midshipmenpassing the American flag up the Memorial Steps. The flag was then presented to Gregory Arabian (LA '54) to recognize his service both in the United States Air Force and also for the Advocates for Tufts ROTC, who sponsored the event.
“I am a philosophical nomad disguised in Western clothing, a wondering drifter, masquerading in a suit near a California beach. Sand forms the foundation of my being, and its porosity is at once my greatest strength and deepest wound.”Who said it? I’ll give you three guesses, and we’ll do it ...
This past Halloween, J.K. Rowling -- the author of the beloved "Harry Potter" series -- released six short stories about the "Harry Potter" universe, adding more detail to her titular character's fantasy world. Released through the Pottermore website, Rowling added yet another ...
“What’s wrong with the world, mama / People livin’ like they ain’t got no mamas / I think the whole world addicted to the drama / Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma.” So sang the great will.i.am in the equally great Black Eyed Pea’s hit single “Where Is the Love?” ...
Ebola can have devastating outcomes to those inflicted, and everyone seems to know something about it. We, at the Daily Arts department, are not disputing this fact. But guys, c’mon: the apocalypse courtesy of Ebola is a long way off. Don’t stock up on water bottles and baby Motrin just yet. Let’s ...
"The Flash," which premiered Oct. 7 on the CW, is far from the only superhero show out there. On the contrary, it seems that the superhero theme is nearly ubiquitous on both the small and silver screens. Every summer seems to bring in another crop of comic book films featuring Marvel and DC ...
For those unfamiliar with "American Horror Story" (2011 - present), often simply referred to as "AHS," each season features a new, unrelated story line that incorporates many of the same actors and actresses playing different characters. This unique approach, along with "AHS's" talented cast, sets the show apart.
The volleyball team kicked off NESCAC play over the weekend by splitting two games, beating Colby on Friday and losing to Bowdoin on Saturday, leaving the Jumbos at .500 both overall (5-5) and in conference play (1-1).Coach Cora Thompson was impressed by her team's tenacity in both games."There ...
Associate Professor of Biology Kelly McLaughlin last Friday spoke at the Experimental College's Taste of Tufts series, discussing her research on the regenerative and developmental abilities of cell groups in South African Clawed Frogs (Xenopus laevis).
The Spoken Word Alliance at Tufts and Parnassus, a recently formed literary magazine, have joined the literary scene on campus this semester. The Canon, the Tufts literary journal, wrote on its website that Tufts lacks a literary scene. The two newly formed groups, however, aim to build up that very presence.Junior Ethan Wise, who acts as producer of SWAT, elaborated on the sparse literary scene on campus.I guess what I would say is that I've yet to notice its presence, which is maybe indicative of its presence," Wise said.Publications currently on campus that feature student-produced work include the Canon, Tufts Observer, Tufts Public Journal and the Daily, among others. After losing its Tufts Community Union Judiciary recognition this spring, the Primary Source has recently returned to campus. Parnassus publishes poetry, fiction, non-fiction and photography.Wise explained that the goal of SWAT is to facilitate more literary events on campus. Julia Malleck, founder of Parnassus, added that Parnassus will provide new programming around campus as well."We are aiming to be a literary magazine, but we also want to create a larger sort of literary and arts community surrounded by it," Malleck, a sophomore, said. "So we want to hold workshops, story slams, chalking about our favorite literature."This Wednesday evening, Parnassus members "chalked" in their favorite quotes, lyrics or phrases on Tisch patio. Parnassus also collaborated with SWAT to hand out printouts of free poems in Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center."It's very much about including the entire community in arts and writing," Malleck said.Malleck said that she expected more in terms of literary outlets at a university like Tufts and that these types of events will hopefully change that for the better.Despite the recent upswing in the activity related to publications on campus, Leonna Hill, a junior majoring in English, said that the literary scene is still pretty quiet."To be honest I don't think there is a big presence," she said. "I'm an English major, and I don't see English book clubs around campus as much as I see activism clubs around."Michael Downing, a lecturer in the Department of English, said that having an active print publication community can be difficult in general, since such publications have been suffering in recent years due to competition with online literary outlets."I think these things are very hard to make a go of," Downing said. "I think the world is really hard on print material of all kinds right now. ... Having time to produce it and then having some way of making people think they are supposed to be interested in the print version of it - it's a challenge."Sophomore Moira Lavelle, however, said the literary scene at Tufts is partly why she made the decision to come here."When I was talking to my parents about my choices, I argued that we had the Daily, and the Observer, the Public Journal and the Canon and we had so many different outlets," Lavelle, a news writer for the Observer, said. "And that was one of my reasons for coming here."Although Lavelle thinks the literary scene is visible, she also pointed out how it is not yet a concrete and unified community."I think [the literary scene] is very much alive but still struggling to attain a certain level of institutionalized structure," Lavelle said. "I think currently we have a lot of disparate outlets."Wise echoed the sentiments that the literary scene is still in an abstract form."The literary scene at Tufts is a really big, multi-faceted and disparate entity, if it's even a single entity, which I don't know if I believe it is," Wise said. "You have the Daily, you have the Canon, you have someone that is starting a poetry literary magazine, you have SWAT, you have all of these other things, but we are not unified under one larger banner."According to Lavelle, the perception that the literary scene is inactive here is an outdated one."I don't know why the perception is that the literary scene doesn't exist," Lavelle said. "I think it might be one of those things where it didn't exist five years ago and we still have that same rhetoric. It's like how we say that Lewis is still a gross dorm, but it got redone
In light of the recent federal government shutdown, it's comforting to know that the Tufts Community Union Senate has been working diligently to make significant changes for students at Tufts. This fall, the Senate has tackled important issues, including the alcohol policy, transportation to Boston and residential life.Generally, the Senate spends the fall researching issues that the student body feels are important and then implements the projects in the spring. TCU President Joe Thibodeau expressed optimism about what the Senate has accomplished so far and hopes that next semester will be even more productive.Overall, I think it's been a good year," Thibodeau, a senior, said. "There are a lot of really ambitious people on Senate, including myself. The year always starts off pretty slow, but ... I think we're at a point where we're settled down in what we're doing. This semester has been a big moment of transition in a lot of ways, and I think we're going to see the effects of that come full circle next semester."TCU Vice President Stephen Ruggiero, currently in his third year in the Senate, echoed Thibodeau's sentiments."I think we've made a lot of progress. We hit the ground running at the beginning of the semester with the new alcohol policy," Ruggiero, a senior, said.The new 'Good Samaritan' alcohol policy separates alcohol-related medical issues from judicial ones, preventing students from being punished for calling Tufts Emergency Medical Services. Already, according to Ruggiero, Tufts has seen a decrease in dangerous alcohol incidents compared to previous fall semesters."If you look at the statistics for medical transports, alcohol violations have gone down for the months of October and September, as compared to years past," Ruggiero said.Another area of concern that senators have recently been focusing on is the accessibility of Boston for students. The Senate recently approved a measure allowing students to purchase discounted Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority passes from the information booth in the Mayer Campus Center. Student groups can apply to the TCU Treasury for MBTA pass funding as well, which has never been offered before.TCU Associate Treasurer Adam Kochman, who spearheaded the project, was enthusiastic about the impact this will have on both individual students and student groups."That was a big initiative of mine that I made in my State of the Treasury speech, and I'm very happy that we're getting it done," Kochman, a sophomore, said.The Senate also passed a resolution calling for a Boston shuttle that would run from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, likely stopping at Harvard Square, Park Street and Kenmore. Senate Services Committee co-Chair Christie Maciejewski expressed confidence that the shuttle will be approved by the administration due to the overwhelming student interest indicated on the Senate Services Survey, circulated online this semester."Ninety seven percent of students were interested [in the Boston shuttle]," Maciejewski, a senior, said. The Senate has also been considering starting a fleet van service for students and student groups. Thibodeau and Ruggiero both noted that the university's two existing OCL vans are old and mostly useless for the majority of the student body. The new vans would be available to a variety of student organizations, including students who need transportation to the Loj. Thibodeau said that he has been looking into van services at other schools in order to determine what system would be best for Tufts."There's a working group that's going to be starting in December that's ... looking at this and evaluating what resources we have as a university in terms of transportation, and how we can create some sort of plan," Thibodeau said. "Some schools will just buy a bunch of vans
Blaring headlines from popular media outlets like The Boston Globe and My Fox Boston of Fox News that came out last spring with scathing titles such as, Tufts students reprimanded over behavior at Boston hotel" and, "Tufts students accused of trashing hotel," have served as an impetus for change here at Tufts.Sophomore Raasika Gaugler said that there was room for improvement in the way Tufts runs its events that are commonly associated with drinking."Unless they change the format, I don't think anything will change," Gaugler said.This year has already seen the introduction of Fall Gala following the cancellation of Fall Ball. In addition to restructured school events, the creation of the "We Are Tufts" campaign that features posters around campus has embodied an evolving mentality on campus in regards to alcohol and drugs.Last year, Health Education and Prevention Specialist Beth Farrow, Director of Alcohol and Health Education Ian Wong and a group of students affiliated with Tufts Community Union Senate started the campaign with the hopes of disproving the commonly held notion that alcohol is an essential part of college culture.While surveying students, Wong said he noticed an interesting paradox between what students believed and what actually held true based on survey findings."We ask students what percentage of students do not drink on campus and they'll say one percent, but when asked do you drink they'll say, 'Yeah, I don't drink,'" Wong said. "People who don't drink think they're the only ones who don't. That's what we are trying to change with these campaigns, saying around 20 to 30 percent of students don't drink at all." The campaign posters around campus tote statistics that 93 percent of students do not let alcohol affect their academics, as well as that the majority of Tufts students limit their alcohol intake or choose not to drink. Wong said the data comes from the social norms survey taken by students online every other year - most recently in 2013. The norms survey is sent out to a random selection of about 1,000 students.According to Wong, the survey uses what the Boston University School of Public Health presents as the Social Norms Theory - how misconceptions of peers' thoughts and actions compel one's own behavior. Social norms campaigns are a prevention strategy implemented to influence interpersonal processes, according to a study entitled, "A Typology for Campus-Based Alcohol Prevention: Moving toward Environmental Management Strategies," conducted in part by the BU School of Public Health. One of the hypotheses presented therein is that misperceptions guide normative expectations of alcohol use, which in turn drive actual use.Though the "We Are Tufts" campaign uses gripping facts and powerful posters to act as a prevention strategy for students, its effectiveness is still being determined on campus.Gaugler, however, is not optimistic about the "We Are Tufts" campaign's influence, especially for those students who already choose not to drink."I don't think necessarily seeing a poster will change how students feel about drugs and alcohol," she said. "It depends if they just feel comfortable not drinking. But if you are fine with not drinking, then seeing the poster won't matter."Tufts Emergency Medical Services Director of Training Ayal Pierce, however, believes that the "We Are Tufts" campaign is promising."Having facts that make people not feel like outsiders is really important, especially people who just came to college," Pierce, a junior, said.Gaugler thought that some students may feel uncomfortable no matter what an ad campaign exposes."I don't know if [the posters] make people feel better," she said. "Just because you know the facts, it may not make you feel more comfortable if your friends still drink anyway."According to Pierce, though, seeing the posters around campus will help students, especially first years, realize that it's okay and even normal to not drink."They're not one of the one percent," he said. "There's around a third of [students] who don't like drinking, who don't enjoy it [and] who don't want to binge drink until they're throwing up in the bathroom."A little over a month into the semester, both students and faculty have looked back on the transformed Fall Ball with mostly positive reactions."I really liked [Fall Gala], personally," Gaugler said. "Fall Ball was usually just a bunch of sweaty people in a room, but Fall Gala was nice because it had good music, fireworks and a photobooth."Wong agreed and thought that the event was innovative."I think the Fall Gala was a success in many ways," he said. "If we look at the numbers, there were less transports and alcohol problems at night than the year before ... [and] it seemed more like a welcome back for the whole campus. It had a different feel with the inclusion of the fireworks and the president's attendance."Echoing Wong's remarks, TEMS Executive Director Paul Pemberton sees the changes around campus as constructive ones."As far as total call numbers go, we did better," Pemberton, a senior, said. "Whether it is actually less people drinking or less people calling us when they end up drinking too much, it's very difficult to gauge, but I can for sure say that the call numbers at the event itself were significantly lower. We got one call at the event itself
Tracy Chapman (LA '86), famed singer-songwriter, attended Tufts. Popular alternative rock band Guster was founded at Tufts, and more recently, Timeflies, which performed at the Lollapalooza music festival this summer, was also created on the Hill.Navigating the music scene at Tufts these days, though, can be a little difficult, according to junior Maeve Bell-Thornton. She has found that many bands start from sharing their work and jamming together.Freshman year there were two guys who were playing around on the floor below me in Houston. They needed a singer," she said.Out of this interaction grew the first Tufts band in which she became involved, Young Excursion, and Bell-Thornton, though panicked at first when there seemed to be very few folk musicians at Tufts looking to jam, was satisfied with the new group."I was so relieved to have a group because [Young Excursion] didn't start a few months into school ... and I was like 'where are the music-y people, I can't find them anywhere,'" she said.Senior Emma Scudder said that, when she came to Tufts, she secretly played in her dorm room but her floormates quickly encouraged her to play more."I then wanted [to] figure out who else was playing this kind of music on campus," Scudder said. "It didn't seem like there was really a place where people were getting together."Bell-Thornton explained that, like Scudder, she is shy with new collaborators."I get very nervous especially at first when I don't know people and I'm singing around them and I'm like, oh this is ... intimidating because I'm kinda putting my heart and soul out there right now on the line," Bell-Thornton said.Personal creativity, she said, must be combined with solid group collaboration to allow a band some successes."Skill is important, but I think what's most important is not being too intimidated by who you're playing with," Bell-Thornton said. "Then things flow so much better and that affects the quality of what you're playing. You have to be willing to lose some sleep over it, to prioritize it."The Tufts community sets a high standard for its musicians and provides an opportunity to build a following, according to senior Hayes Peebles."To stick, to become something in the Tufts stratosphere, you need to be good and need to be doing things that people enjoy, but you need to be part of the community as well," Peebles said.Bell-Thornton added that the music community offered a social outlet."Also, socially, it was something that I really need. It was just a relief more than anything," she said.Hailing from Nashville, Tenn., Bell-Thornton said she grew up surrounded by music, and playing the guitar happened organically for her."My dad was a musician so there were ... guitars lying around the house and there's a piano in our living room so I was like, well, free guitars
Davita Vance-Cooks' (J '77) nomination as 27th public printer of the Government Printing Office is trend-breaking in two ways: Vance-Cooks is both the first African-American and the first woman to ever hold this title. President Barack Obama on May 9 announced her nomination as public printer, and she was later sworn in on Aug. 21. Her confirmation marked the fastest Senate confirmation of a public printer in nearly 20 years.
