Jumbos' Off-Campus Behavior Strains Town-Gown Relations Community
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Today: Sunny THE TUFTS High 88 Low 66 Tufts’ Student Tomorrow: Newspaper Sunny Since 1980 High 90 Low 66 VOLUME LIV, NUMBER 12 DAILY TUESDAY , SEP T EMBER 25, 2007 Community remembers Gerald Jumbos’ off-campus behavior Gill at packed memorial service strains town-gown relations BY GI O VA nni RUSSO N ELLO BY ROB SI L V ERBLA tt Chetwynd Rd. and Curtis St. Daily Editorial Board Daily Editorial Board Last year, the residents of that area band- ed together to form the C-3 Neighborhood Words of honor from University President Town-gown relations centered around Association, with the goal of soothing rising Lawrence Bacow and Provost Jamshed student behavior have been deterio- tensions. Bharucha, musical tributes by professors rating this year, according to Director of “I think they may have originally came and students, and an emotional retrospec- Community Relations Barbara Rubel. together just to commiserate, but soon tive speech from a graduate student echoed With residents of the surrounding neigh- decided that there were things they could through a packed Cohen Auditorium yester- borhoods increasingly cutting off contact do,” Rubel said. day. with the university, the only outlet for their Now called the West Somerville They came as the Tufts community remem- frustration is becoming the police. Neighborhood Association, there are over bered the recently deceased Gerald Gill. “Interestingly enough they have stopped 100 people on its e-mail list. “He transformed life,” Bharucha said. “He talking directly to the university because The group, however, has cut off commu- took on the responsibility to address some of they got so aggravated about what was nication with Rubel’s office, leaving the Tufts the most insidious issues of our time.” going on with the students,” Rubel said. Community Union (TCU) Senate as its sole Students, faculty members and other mem- “We talk now more with the police than we point of contact. bers of the community lined the rear wall of talk with the neighbors.” TCU President Neil DiBiase said that he Cohen after all the seats on the first floor had While these tensions were thrust into the has been in contact frequently with the been filled by other audience members. limelight with a recent e-mail to the student group’s leader, Edward Beuchert, and that One of the most memorable moments in body highlighting incidents of emergency- he has noted increased urgency in their the program came unexpectedly when David room aggression and pub-night urination, complaints. Proctor, the classics department administra- these events are only the tip of the iceberg. “I think they’re getting more and more tor and a graduate student who had studied What has most concerned neighbors, frustrated,” DiBiase said. “Why would they with Gill, delivered his brief tribute. Rubel said, is the constancy of student row- [avoid] calling the police and notifying their Proctor said that in addition to the many diness. elected officials when the problem is not academic lessons Gill, who was an associ- “It becomes a constant irritation. If it abating and is getting worse?” ate history professor at the time of his death, were only one party after one big event once put forth to his colleagues and students, “he in a while, I think most neighbors would A breaking point? taught us how to value everyone around us.” REBEKAH SOKOL/TUFTS DAILY find a way to tolerate that,” she said. While these tensions had been mounting, “We’ve all benefited from these lessons, but Faculty members and students expressed But eventually, she said, they lose hope. recent events prompted DiBiase to express none more so than his students,” he said. their grief during a ceremony in memory of “They feel that we can’t seem to do any- frustration in an e-mail to the student body. It has long been said of Gill that he was Gerald Gill yesterday. thing to improve the situation, so they stop Specifically, Health Service received an exceptionally involved teacher, one who talking to us,” she said. complaints from the Lawrence Memorial embodied the principles of undergraduate unexpectedly broke down, his voice quaking Hospital about aggressive behavior by Tufts education. as he said, “Professor Gill, you will always live The concerned neighbors students following Fall Ball. “Office hours went on well past posted in the memory of your students.” Most of the complaints that Rubel’s And during the first senior pub night times,” Proctor said. “[Gill’s was] a door that Associate Music Professor John McDonald office hears about are from the Somerville at the Liquor Store in Boston, there were was always open.” neighborhoods surrounding campus, As he neared the end of his speech, Proctor see GILL, page 2 specifically from around Conwell Ave, see TOWN-GOWN RELATIONS, page 2 Sophomore senator resigns; Biologist and UMASS professor Lynn new election is scheduled Margulis to deliver next Snyder lecture BY BE nn E tt KU hn After speaking with friends Daily Editorial Board and mentors, Kolbe said she BY BRUCE HAM I L T O N Rather than random muta- “finally put it in perspective.” Daily Editorial Board tions causing variation among Sophomore Callie Kolbe Kolbe now plans to pursue organisms, Margulis argues announced her resignation her interests in biopsychology Lynn Margulis, a biologist that “new tissues, organs and from the Tufts Community and to focus on her classes. and professor at the University even new species evolve pri- Union (TCU) Senate on “The reason why I’m here of Massachusetts (UMASS) marily through the long-last- Sunday. is to get an education first Amherst, has been selected to ing intimacy of strangers.” The decision comes over a and it’s nice to get a chance to be the seventh speaker in the Tufts Professor of Biology week after the Sept. 13 elec- really prioritize my academic Richard E. Snyder Presidential Sara Lewis said she is looking tions for the freshmen class life.” Lecture Series. forward to Margulis’ lecture senators, so the Elections Some feel it would have The topic of her lecture, to and that her speech is a “ter- Commission (ECOM) will been better if Kolbe had be delivered Oct. 4, will be rific opportunity for Tufts.” conduct a special election to resigned before the freshmen “Evolution: An Unauthorized “It’s a chance to hear a real- fill the vacant position on Oct. elections so that her posi- Biography of Our Symbiotic ly great evolutionary biologist 10. This will be preceded by a tion could have already been Planet.” speak and [to] interact with candidates’ forum on Oct. 8 filled. The purpose of the lecture her,” she said. if more than one sophomore Sophomore and ECOM series is to invite expert speak- Lewis said that one of runs. Treasurer Kevin Terhorst ers who have challenged main- Margulis’ disputed theories Kolbe said she decided to said it makes the Senate’s job stream thought. According to was that mitochondria, the step down because she wants harder when a resignation University President Lawrence “powerhouses of every single COUrtESY ECOETHICS.NET to diversify her activities. falls after freshmen elections Bacow, Margulis fits this cell in higher organisms,” were Lynn Margulis will give a speech at “I am resigning because because the Senate is then description well. once “free-living creatures ... Tufts in October. there are a lot of other things forced to operate minus one “Lynn has done this and that were captured and came at college that I want to expe- until an election can be held. more, and actually was quite to live happily in other cells.” challenged conventional wis- rience,” she said. “It has noth- “As far as Senate logistics controversial in her field for According to Lewis, this was dom, Dean of Undergraduate ing to do with anybody on are concerned, it would be many years until scientists controversial and challenged Education James Glaser said Senate because I think every- nice to have a full body,” he developed methodologies to mainstream theories, but now, she will “probably not” be as one on the body works so said. test her theories and [decided “many, many independent controversial as past speakers hard and they’re all friends of But he said it is not a she was] correct,” he said in an lines of evidence” corroborate in the series, who have includ- mine.” major setback, as ECOM goes e-mail. Margulis’ assertion. ed Salman Rushdie, Shelby The sophomore said that through the year “assum- According to Margulis’ “Her point of view has been Steele and, most recently, she had been considering her ing” that there will need to UMASS faculty biography, she vindicated, because evidence Lawrence Summers. decision for some time. be a special election at some is “best known for her theory has shown that this recon- Still, he said that creating “I have been anxious to try point. of symbiogenesis, which chal- struction of events ... is basi- controversy is not the point of something new for a while,” lenges a central tenet of neo- cally true.” she said. see KOLBE, page 2 darwinism.” While Margulis has indeed see SNYDER, page 2 Inside this issue tuftsdaily.com Today’s Sections The Daily goes ‘wild’ Jumbos won nine of Op-Ed 11 for Sean Penn’s latest first 10 games en route News 1 directorial project. to second place at MIT Features 3 Comics 12 Invitational. Arts | Living 7Classifieds 13 Editorial | Letters 10 Sports Back see ARTS page 7 see back page 2 THE TUF T S DAILY NEWS Tuesday, September 25, 2007 DiBiase calls upon students to find the balance between fun, recklessness TOWN-GOWN RELATIONS dents usually only living in a given continued from page 1 neighborhood for one year, that did reports of students urinating on the not seem possible.