Where You Read It First Rain 48/42 THE TUFTS DAILY Est. 1980 VOLUME LIX, NUMBER 38 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2010 TUFTSDAILY.COM Class of 2014 by the numbers Significant strides made on Admissions decisions for the 91: the percentage of accepted Class of 2014 will be sent out applicants that rank in the top 10 today. Here is a look at the percent of their high school class, revision to sexual assault policy profile of the class based on up from 90 percent last year BY MICHAEL DEL MORO numbers from the Office of Daily Editorial Board Undergraduate Admissions: 32: the percentage of accepted applicants who are American stu- A recent Tufts Community 15,437: the number of under- dents of color, up from 30 per- Union (TCU) Senate resolution and graduate applications, the third- cent last year the combined efforts of Students largest applicant pool in history Active for Ending Rape (SAFER) and 38: the percentage of engineers administrators have led to progress 24.5: the percentage of appli- admitted who are women, up on revisions to Tufts’ much-criti- cants offered admission, mak- from 33 percent last year. cized sexual assault policy. ing this Tufts’ second-most The movement to revise the selective admission cycle and 54: the percentage of accepted policy, which also involves Health the lowest acceptance rate applicants who applied for finan- Service, is a product of concern since 2001 cial aid, down from 55 percent for past victims and the wide- last year spread desire for a more compre- 24: the percentage of appli- hensive policy that is on par with cants to the School of Arts and 4: the percentage of anticipated those at other private colleges and Sciences that were accepted increase in need-based aid expen- universities. diture for the incoming class from TCU Senator Wyatt Cadley, 27.5: the percentage of last year a freshman who serves on the applicants to the School of Administration and Policy TIEN TIEN/TUFTS DAILY Engineering that were accepted —compiled by Amelie Hecht Committee, recently introduced The Senate recently passed a resolution in support of a clearer sexual a resolution stating the Senate’s assault policy. support for SAFER and Health Service’s efforts to craft a new sex- tation of new policy language or language is neither comprehen- ual assault policy. merely further discussion, accord- sive nor clear, especially when The Senate on March 14 unani- ing to SAFER President Alexandra compared to the policies in place mously adopted the resolution, Flanagan, a senior. at institutions like Bowdoin and which calls for a policy that According to Senior Director Middlebury Colleges. details a list of available resources of Health and Wellness Service “[Middlebury and Bowdoin’s] for sexual assault victims. It also Michelle Bowdler, administrators policies are incredibly thorough proposes that the new policy be have made significant progress on and are examples of what we’re ready for implementation by the the new policy and will likely pres- trying to do with our new policy,” fall 2010 semester. ent drafts at the meeting. Cadley said. “The most important thing that While the sexual assault policy Flanagan echoed Cadley’s con- we need in this policy is clarity for at Tufts consists of just a few para- cerns and said that clarity and the average student,” Cadley said. graphs on the Student Affairs Web establishing step-by-step guide- “I don’t feel like we have enough site, the policies at other academic lines for victims have been the top of that right now, and that’s some- institutions are pages long, accord- priorities of the ongoing dialogue. thing that is incredibly dishearten- ing to Cadley, who sent out the The experience of a Tufts stu- ing to see.” original e-mails making the Senate dent who had been a victim of A meeting between administra- aware of this discrepancy. stalking illustrates the confusion tors and student leaders is sched- Cadley called the current list of surrounding the current policy. The uled for April 6, although it is cur- options for victims “a hodge-podge source, who requested anonymity, rently unclear whether this meet- of miscellaneous resources” and ing will involve the actual presen- explained that the current policy see SEXUAL ASSAULT, page 2 COURTESY ANGELA LAM Students yesterday contributed to the creation of a handprint mural in the campus center. Students plan events, activities to Walt receives grant to work with promote census on campus local public school chemistry classes BY AMELIE HECHT generally return several times BY VICTORIA MESSURI with the equipment to conduct The program organizers chose Daily Editorial Board in order to acquire informa- Contributing Writer experiments that would normal- the three locations the project tion, whereas at Tufts, students ly be prohibited for them to con- focuses on because they are The Tisch College of will not receive numerous Local socio-economically duct,” Walt said. “The intention Tufts’ host communities. Citizenship and Public reminders. disadvantaged public high is to provide them with experi- “Tufts has a particular inter- Service is this week sponsor- “If they don’t fill it out [when schools will soon have greater ments and to create what we call est in Medford, Somerville and ing an effort to bring a variety they get it from their RAs], access to chemistry research a ‘lending library’ where we have Chinatown because we have of events to campus to raise that’s it,” Valenzuela said. equipment thanks to Professor certain pieces of equipment that schools there,” CO-OP Program awareness about the ongoing Along with the immigrant of Chemistry David Walt and high schools and libraries can Coordinator Meredith Knight U.S. Census 2010. population, Tufts students the team behind his Tufts borrow to conduct those experi- said. “We want to develop tra- Daniela Valenzuela, a senior are considered one of the Chemistry Organized Outreach ments.” ditional relationships with these involved in the project, said two groups in the Somerville Program (CO-OP) project. The Dreyfus Foundation is a towns.” the week’s activities are part of area that are difficult to track, Walt was recently award- small organization that seeks to Walt became aware of local a campaign to increase Tufts according to Tufts Community ed $50,000 from the Special fund proposals from people and high schools’ needs after working students’ participation in the Union (TCU) Senator Tomas Grant Program in the Chemical institutions with a strong will to for a few years with Malden High census. Valdes, a junior Tisch Scholar Sciences from the Camille & advance the chemical sciences. School chemistry teacher Diane “We’re hoping to raise involved in census work in Henry Dreyfus Foundation, This includes projects to increase Perito. awareness with the students Somerville. Inc. Walt’s CO-OP project was public awareness, understanding “We’ve realized that high … so they don’t just throw [the “Students are considered one of 13 proposals to receive and appreciation of the chemi- schools don’t have access to some census] away when they get it,” one of the hard-to-count pop- the grant. cal sciences and new ways to of the simple pieces of equip- Valenzuela said. ulations, and, [when Tufts stu- CO-OP will begin working approach chemistry at all educa- ment that we take for granted in Residential assistants (RAs) dents don’t fill out the survey], this May with local high school tion levels. a college settings, so we started will give students census there’s this huge gap in the teachers in Somerville, Malden, “The Special Grant Program is loaning them pieces of equip- forms, and Valenzuela empha- Somerville/Medford popula- Chinatown and Medford. The basically an open solicitation for ment for a period of a week or sized that each student will tion,” Valenzuela said. program’s focus is to supply proposals to advance the chemi- two at a time,” Walt said. only receive one form, so it is To combat this problem, equipment for high schools to cal sciences,” Dreyfus Foundation According to Walt, setting up important not to lose them or some students have embarked use in chemistry experiments. Operations Manager Adam Lore a library of equipment for loans throw them away. on a major mobilization effort. “We’re planning to provide said. “We often receive educa- would be much more efficient Valenzuela explained that, in local schools — primarily high tional initiatives at the college private homes, census-takers see CENSUS, page 2 schools and middle schools — level as well as K-12.” see CHEMISTRY, page 2 Inside this issue Today’s Sections Div. III’s 432 members News 1 Editorial | Letters 10 The SXSW festival takes articulate their com- Austin by storm. mon identity after put- Features 3 Op-Ed 11 ting aside philosophi- Arts & Living 5Classifieds 13 cal differences. Comics 7 Sports Back Captured 8 see ARTS, page 5 see SPORTS, back 2 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS Wednesday, March 31, 2010 Students and administrators hope new policy will be in place by the fall SEXUAL ASSAULT health education on campus. She noted that continued from page 1 she has since come to understand students’ was involved in a post-relationship situation misgivings about the policy. that required a stay-away order and said that “What I would say is that students clear procedural guidelines were lacking. expressed concerns about the existing policy “I didn’t really know where to turn to and and that they felt like there wasn’t a clear I had to actually look on Tuftslife and figure statement in a way that students could go things out,” the source told the Daily.