Today: Cloudy THE TUFTS High 46 Low 36 Tufts’ Student Tomorrow: Newspaper Rain Since 1980 High 43 Low 36 VOLUME LIII, NUMBER 41 DAILY TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 2007 ‘Issues of the Future’ takes on immigration Alumni Association BY ASHLEY PANDYA gives annual awards Daily Editorial Board to group of seniors The Tufts Democrats, the Students at Tufts Acting for Immigrant Rights BY GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO Daily Editorial Board (STAIR) Coalition and the Tisch College joined together to host the annual Issues of the Future Symposium on The recipients of this year’s Alumni Saturday. Association Senior Awards form a This year’s topic, “The Impact of diverse group: two will go on to eight- Immigration,” was selected to “raise year M.D./Ph.D. programs after gradu- awareness about the immigration ation this May; two will take jobs with debate,” according to senior and Tufts Teach For America; two plan on earn- Democrats President Kayt Norris. ing master’s degrees in public health; The keynote address was delivered and one is a member of the New by Simon Rosenberg (LA ’85), the presi- Hampshire House of Representatives. dent and founder of the New Democrat Lisa Berger, Sebastian Chaskel, Network (NDN), an organization that Mickey Ferri, Julia S. Goldberg, Faith seeks to bring politics up to speed with Hester, Fred Jones Jr., Angela C. Lee, the modern era. Rosenberg will join Jessica Lessing, D. Scott Merrick, the Tisch College Board this month. Stephen Rawlings, Annie Ross and Concern about immigration is “one Stacey Watkins received their award at of the biggest challenges of the 21st a ceremony held Saturday in Cousens century,” Rosenberg said. JESSICA BIDGOOD/TUFTS DAILY Gymnasium. But a “durable and sustainable” Simon Rosenberg (LA ’85), pictured here, delivered the keynote address at an immigration They were selected for their leader- approach is necessary, he argued, symposium on Saturday. ship on campus, community service since migration is unlikely to let up. and academic success. “As the pain of immigration is lessened Passing progressive legislation, he der security while at the same time “There were over 30 nominations due to the ease of travel and transition, said, is a necessary step in reforming addressing the legal status of undocu- for this award and we had to winnow it migration will increase globally,” he current policies. mented immigrants. In doing so, it down to 12. They were absolutely out- said. He said that an example of such leg- aimed to appease both Democrats and standing students,” Alumni Association In this climate, the United States’ islation is the Kennedy-McCain immi- Republicans. The bill never passed in President Sunny Breed (J ’66) said. current stance leaves a lot to be gration bill that made it through the the House of Representatives, however, At the event, University Chaplain desired, he said. “No one is happy with U.S. Senate last year. He called it “an because it was met with substantial David O’Leary, Dean of Arts and our current stance on immigration,” oasis of sanity.” Rosenberg said. The bill sought to increase bor- see IMMIGRATION, page 2 see ALUMNI, page 2 Hotung opening delayed; vote fi nalizes beer labels BY JENNA NISSAN the impression that a few pieces Daily Editorial Board of equipment did not arrive on schedule and delayed the open- The opening of the newly ren- ing. ovated Hotung Café, tentatively Roberto, however, said that he scheduled until recently for April didn’t have information to con- 1, has been postponed to April firm or deny this. “It would not 10. be unusual if a certain piece of According to Tufts Community equipment didn’t arrive on sched- Union (TCU) Senate Historian ule, but I do not know if some- Neil DiBiase, the opening was thing specifically did not arrive,” delayed because of construction he said. delays that were “out of our con- According to Robinson, the trol.” postponement will ensure a more Senate President Mitch efficient opening. “The Dean of Robinson agreed. “With issues Students Office, Dining Services like this, you have to make sure and the Senate are in agreement that everything is done well and that we want to make sure that is ready to go. A tentative date Hotung’s [opening day] is good was set — it was never confirmed, and successful, and we don’t want but it was a tentative date, and there to be anything that’s not REBEKAH SOKOL/TUFTS DAILY it wasn’t ready at that time,” he ready to go,” he said. said. When it opens, students will be Sultan speech kicks off Islamic Awareness Week Robinson said that he did not able to order from the new menu know specific details about the and alcohol will be served. Based Tufts’ celebration of Islamic “The question is: Does the Koran continue today with the screening delays. “I try to stay out of the on 573 votes from the senior Awareness Week began last night talk about the fact that people of short films and the presentation construction details as much as class, Sam Adams, Heineken and with a speech by Imam Sohaib have different paths [to] religion?” of student skits in Mugar 231 at 8 possible,” he said. Guinness will be served, with Sultan, the author of the 2004 He argued that the Koran does p.m. Vice President for Operations Sam Adams emerging as the clear book “The Koran for Dummies” address this issue. Members of dif- According to junior and Muslim John Roberto said construction favorite of voters. and the Muslim chaplain for Trinity ferent religions “do believe in very Students Association President has been going smoothly and Robinson said that he believes College and Wesleyan University. similar notions,” he said. “But at Shirwac Mohamed, the purpose of that any delays that might have the campus community will be His lecture, which was entitled the same time, we have differ- the events that will occur through- occurred are not out of the ordi- receptive to the postponement “Islam & Pluralism,” was held in ences, and these differences can out the week is to work toward nary. because the final product will be Tisch 304 and was sponsored by be talked about in a very civil man- dispelling the variety of misconcep- “I’m not aware of any major worth the wait. Tufts’ Muslim Students Association ner.” tions that exist about Islam and to construction problems that were “The fact of the matter is things and the Office of the University Sultan said that education is draw distinctions between religion encountered. It’s probably just like this take time, and you can Chaplaincy. an important means of spurring and politics. due to the natural course of any only move as fast as the construc- Throughout his speech, Sultan communication between religions, “This can’t be done in a week, construction project ... The fact tion and the process allows you discussed the necessity of inter- and noting that “the college campus but we want to try our best to that it’s one week beyond [the to,” he said. “The fact that it’s intra-faith communication. “People is where this education must hap- inform people about the religion,” target date], I don’t see to be any- late is frustrating for all parties will be attracted in their search for pen.” he said. thing particularly unusual.” God to different paths,” he said. Islamic Awareness Week will —by Rebekah Sokol DiBiase said that he was under see HOTUNG, page 2 Inside this issue tuftsdaily.com Today’s Sections GREEN BEING EASY ROCKING RX News 1 Viewpoints 13 Glowing condoms, bio-friend- Get your fill of Ted Leo’s Features 3 Comics 18 ly vibrators are part of green prescription Arts | Living 7Classifieds 19 sex trend Editorial | Letters 12 Sports Back see FEATURES, page 3 see ARTS, page 7 2 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS Tuesday, April 3, 2007 WORLD IN BRIEF OLMERT CALLS ON SAUDI ARABIA More construc- TO TAKE LEAD IN TALKS Students experience the sights Responding to an Arab peace initiative, Israeli tion, delays on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday invited and sounds of Israeli culture Arab leaders to meet with him, saying he is pre- pared to talk to moderate Arab states about ways BY AMANDA MCDAVID for students interested in studying in the horizon? to resolve the Arab- Israeli conflict. Daily Staff Writer Israel and a film screening. “I invite to a meeting all the Arab heads of Although politics were not com- HOTUNG state, including, of course, the Saudi king, whom Israeli culture permeated the pletely removed from the events, the continued from page 1 I regard as a very important leader, to have a dia- Mayer Campus Center and the area cultural aspects of Israel were the involved, but on April 10 we’ll have a logue with us,” Olmert said. surrounding it on Friday during the main focus. completely new servery in Hotung ... The overture by Olmert followed last week’s culmination of IsraelFest. “The Middle East is always por- [and also] a new menu and items stu- Arab League summit in Riyadh that renewed a Tufts’ Klezmer Ensemble and trayed in such a negative light ... dents have requested for a very long 2002 peace initiative first proposed by the Saudis. BaShuk, both of which played Israeli IsraelFest brings Israel to the average time,” he said. It offers Israel recognition and normal relations in music, were among the groups that Tufts student in a non-political way,” return for an Israeli withdrawal from all territories performed at Friday’s event, which said sophomore Naomi Berlin, the “I don’t really go there captured in the 1967 Middle East war, establish- also featured Shofar blowing, candle president of Friends of Israel, a group ment of a Palestinian state and a “just solution” making and Henna tattoos.