Where You Rain Read It First 49/36 THE TUFTS DAILY Est. 1980 VOLUME LVI, NUMBER 37 TUESDAY, OCtoBER 28, 2008 TUFTSDAILY.COM BY JEREMY WHITE all just a ruse Daily Editoral Board BY GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO Matt Bai (LA ’90), a political writ- TreeDaily protest Editorial Board is er for the New York Times Magazine, Bai analyzes Internet’s effect on spokenational to students yesterday politics about the As it turns out, the organizers transformative power of the Internet of last week’s tree protest were not in national elections and the shifting misinformed, but rather misinfor- political landscape. mants. Bai focused his The protest drew about 30 stu- speech on the impli- dents to the President’s Lawn to cations of a possible protest the removal of a tree that Obama victory and the administration never actual- the unprecedented ly planned on cutting down. The technological factors event’s planners, however, designed underlying this year’s the operation as a prank, invent- race. ing the identity of Michael Canton, To begin his Pearson Hall talk, Bai the man whom they claimed was warned against falling back on outdat- behind the protest. ed historical parallels to bygone presi- “We didn’t have that much of a dential elections. “Tempted as we may higher purpose in doing this. I’d like be to draw historical comparisons, you to say we did, but I mean, really it can’t simply look back to 1932 to find was just kind of a product of bore- answers,” Bai said, referring to Franklin dom more than anything,” said one Roosevelt’s first victory, which came in sophomore who was involved in the the midst of national economic turmoil REBEKAH SOKOL/TUFTS DAILY see TREE, page 2 Matt Bai (LA ’90) hinged his speech on the assumption that Barack Obama will win the election. see BAI, page 2 Snake may be roaming Latin Way walls, TUPD says ZBT’s ball earns $2,450 If Latin Way has a mice prob- it would perish in the wall, and “approved service animals or fish lem, then the mice in Latin Way there would be no stench in the in tanks no larger than 10 gal- now have a problem. wall. Wherever it is, it’s still there lons,” according to “Habitats,” A student’s pet boa constric- somewhere,” Weisse said in an the school’s official guide to resi- BY RO B SILVER B LATT enjoyed themselves. tor escaped from its cage on interview yesterday evening. dential life. Daily Editorial Board “Rolling a giant six-foot beach Friday and is now believed to be “According to All Star [Pest Ales said that ResLife was in ball around campus for a week trapped in the residence hall’s Control], you can’t coax a snake the process of deciding how to The Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT) fra- is a good time,” he said. walls. out with food or anything,” Weisse punish the student for keeping ternity reeled in $2,450 for the Ebin added that it was a good The university’s pest control said, referring to the Somerville- a snake in an on-campus room. Children’sfor children’s Hospital Boston after way tohospital combat stereotypes and contractor told the Department based company. “I have been in contact with last week’s fundraising cam- demonstrate the fraternity’s of Facilities that the 11-inch-long Carrie Ales, assistant director the student and will be meeting paign, during which brothers philanthropic agenda. snake will probably die in the walls of community and judicial affairs with them this week to discuss rolled a giant beach ball around “It definitely raised aware- unless it happens upon an open- for the Office of Residential Life their consequences,” Ales told campus, collecting signatures ness for [the] events and phil- ing through which to escape, and Living, sent an e-mail to Latin the Daily in an e-mail. She did on the six-foot-tall sphere. anthropic activities of ZBT as according to Tufts University Way residents on Friday after- not respond to a follow-up mes- The fraternity kicked off the well as the Greek community,” Police Department (TUPD) Sgt. noon alerting them to the fact sage requesting the identity of fundraiser last Sunday at the he said. “I know numerous peo- Darren Weisse. that a snake was on the loose. the student. Granoff Family Hillel Center. ple came up to us when we “The gentleman that we use University policy prohibits stu- University President Lawrence were rolling the ball and said, said if the snake gets in the wall dents from keeping pets in on- Bacow, a ZBT alum, attended ‘I thought you guys only have and could not find its way out, campus housing, excepting only — by Giovanni Russonello the Hillel gathering and was the parties.’” first to pen his name on the ball. The fundraiser culminated Brothers went on to collect over at Friday’s fraternity and soror- 1,200 signatures, according to ity block party, which brought ZBT Vice President Daniel Ebin, together all campus Greek orga- a junior. nizations, students and local Hillel, the Office for Campus Medford and Somerville resi- Life, Hillside Wine and Spirits dents. and other donors contrib- Ebin said that brothers did uted money to the fraternity’s not collect many signatures BY CAROLINE MELHADO departments in the country, Tufts also spent a sepa- efforts. during the concluding event. Contributing Writer according to an article in rate $3 million turning an old Despite the “quizzical looks” “By then, pretty much every- NeuroscienceTufts professorMedicine, the medical shirtHaydon’s factory at 35 Kneeland that the ball-bearing brothers body had [already] signed the Thanks to a $3 million gift school’s magazine. Street in Boston into a high- attracted, Ebin said that they ball,” he said. from a Tufts trustee, a new Haydon was recently promot- tech laboratory for various endowedendowment professorship is ed improves to chair of the Department department medical fields, including supplementing the School of of Neuroscience. He moved to neuroscience. Medicine’s efforts to revamp Tufts from the University of “Without the investment its neuroscience department. Pennsylvania, where he began by the university, it would Trustee Annetta Grisard- research that he will continue not have been possible to cre- Schrafl and her husband here on how glial cells commu- ate state-of-the-art facilities Gustav Grisard donated the nicate in the brain. to recruit the best scientists,” money through Switzerland’s The article said that the Rosenblatt said in the article. Foundation for Research in neuroscience program at Haydon is accompanied in Gastroenterology and Related Tufts will be enhanced with his move to Tufts by anoth- Fields, according to medical multiple new tenure-track er internationally regarded school spokesperson Siobhan positions, which are anoth- neuroscientist, Professor Gallagher. er development in Haydon’s Stephen Moss, who arrived in The medical school has plan to improve the neurosci- the spring with a team of 16 endowed Neuroscience ence department at Tufts. researchers. Professor Philip Haydon’s “Dr. Haydon wants to bring “With the investments that professorship with the dona- us up to the level of being are being made together with tion and has opened a state- absolutely the best. We’ve the recognized experts already of-the-art research facil- marshaled our resources,” in the department and more ity in an effort to emerge as Medical School Dean Michael MEREDITH KLEIN/TUFTS DAILY one of the top neuroscience Rosenblatt said in the article. see NEUROSCIENCE, page 2 ZBT’s six-foot-tall ball rolled to the Greek community’s block party on Friday. Inside this issue Today’s Sections The new Gmail feature The women’s crew team “Mail Goggles” protects boasted two top-10 fin- News 1 Op-Ed 9 users against drunk ishes at the Head of the Features 3 Comics 11 e-mailing tendencies. Fish on Sunday. Arts | Living 5Classifieds 13 Editorial | Letters 8 Sports Back see FEATURES, page 3 see SPORTS, back page 2 THE TUF T S DAILY NEWS Tuesday, October 28, 2008 TREE Using the name Michael Canton, the Grafton campus/ take occasional class- cal protest were still a mystery. “I would continued from page 1 architects of the rally created a Gmail. es as well” [sic]. love to find out who the person is who planning and requested anonymity. com account that they used to invite The sophomore recalled that started this terrible rumor,” Pamela SophomoreThe protest became a surprisedway to poke select that students peersto the rally. will putthe inpranksters effort had funfor concocting environmental Dill, an administrative activism assistant in the fun at another student who is taking a The Daily, under the impres- Canton’s job description. “We’d had a Office of the Executive Vice President, course on social movements with some sion that Canton was a real person, few drinks,” the sophomore said. “We told the Daily on Wednesday. of the pranksters, and who hoped to sought to contact him via e-mail for its went though a bunch of options. We The sophomore admitted that the study the protest for a major class proj- Wednesday article on the rally. Posing were thinking of a OneSource worker.” rally’s organizers had drawn some heat ect, according to the sophomore. as Canton, the students responded past The sophomore said the rally incited for the fake protest, mentioning social- “We’re in, like, a social movements press time. “I originally heard about the more widespread enthusiasm than the ly conscious students who worried that class,” the sophomore said. “They were tree being removed from someone who group had expected.