A Facebook Rallying Cry Town Meeting Takes On
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Today: Partly Cloudy THE TUFTS High 75 Low 53 Tufts’ Student Tomorrow: Newspaper Partly Cloudy Since 1980 High 60 Low 44 VOLUME LII, NUMBER 19 DAILY WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2006 NEWS ANALYSIS A Facebook rallying cry A group organizes —online — to ‘bring the social life back.’ But can they succeed? BY DAVID POMERANTZ the freshman-year experience.” Daily Editorial Board Approximately seven of the group’s members attended. Students who feel disenchant- Senior Eli Cohn, whose Sept. 25 ed with the Tufts social scene Daily viewpoint entitled “Tufts have a new forum for voicing a party school? If the freshmen their troubles: Facebook.com. only knew” sparked the group’s On Sept. 25, three sopho- creation, addressed the panel of mores, Erik Aurigemma, Brendan deans about the issue. DiPiazza and Julien Chemouni “Tufts is lacking in its social Bach, created the Facebook group aspects,” Cohn said at the meet- “Bringing the Social Life Back to ing. “I think it’s a big issue on Tufts,” which aims to be a “brain- campus right now. Tufts is making storming center where students a lot of great strides, but we don’t with a common goal centered just go to school here. We live here on the revival of the Tufts Social too, and if kids aren’t having fun, TIM FITZSIMONS/TUFTS DAILY Scene can gather,” according to everything suffers, including the Plenty of questions were fielded by deans at a town hall meeting in Sophia Gordon Hall yesterday. the group’s official description. academics.” As of press time last night, the “I know it’s an issue,” Dean group boasted 976 members. of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman Town Meeting takes on academic issues Like their counterparts in the said. “There will be no change political blogosphere, the group’s this year in the University’s social BY HAYDEN REICH Glaser, and Dean of Student es,” citing language houses and creators hope that they can use or alcohol policies, but the con- Contributing Writer Affairs Bruce Reitman. common interest houses, such the Internet to mobilize Tufts cerns about their enforcement is While the deans were largely as the Crafts House, as examples. students to rally the administra- something to think about.” Yesterday afternoon, a panel of the authorities on issues raised, He acknowledged, however, that tion and implement changes that Reitman said that his office administrators had a conversation conversation went back and forth buildings like these are of a small- would improve the campus social would initiate a “community con- with approximately 50 students in between faculty and students er scale than the large residence scene. versation” which would include the Sophia Gordon Hall confer- attendees, who were primarily halls. “The ultimate goal of the group representatives from the police ence room. upperclassmen reflecting on their “Could we incorporate themes is to get the [Tufts Community and any interested students, and The dialogue, the first of experiences as freshmen. into the larger halls?” Reitman Union] Senate, the Greeks, the that an e-mail would be sent to a planned series of Arts and Concerns discussed ranged said. “I think we absolutely various culture houses, and the the student body to announce the Sciences town meetings, focused from admission numbers for stu- could.” class councils together and col- meeting. on the intellectual experience of dents of color to the freshman Sophomore Padden Murphy lectively try to talk to the admin- When Aurigemma, who also freshmen at Tufts. advising program. said intellectually inclined people istration,” Aurigemma said attended, asked Reitman when Dean of Arts and Sciences Attendees grappled with how might have an easier time con- in a roundtable interview with such a meeting would occur, he Robert Sternberg began this series best to create a cohesive first- necting in what he called a “natu- DiPiazza, Chemouni Bach and responded by saying that it would as a “good way to hear different year experience. Junior Steve ral academic splurge spot,” using the Daily. “We want to form new take place later this week or early points of view” about life around McFarland said that “program- the Tower Cafe as an example. lines of communication.” next week. campus, he said. Both students ming is not the right paradigm, Murphy also raised the ques- The group made its first foray DiPiazza and Chemouni Bach and faculty were encouraged to there needs to be something tion of a possible “advancement outside of the digital world today, said their concerns are mostly attend. more” to help like-minded fresh- in how freshmen are assigned when members attended a town with on the on-campus social The panel included Sternberg, men connect within their class. advisors,” and if it would be better hall meeting organized by Dean scene. Dean of Undergraduate Reitman addressed these con- to place freshmen with advisors of Arts and Sciences Robert “Off-campus is a more compli- Admissions Lee Coffin, Dean of cerns, pointing out that currently Sternberg to discuss “intellectual Undergraduate Education James “we program around theme hous- see MEETING, page 2 life on campus in the context of see FACEBOOK, page 2 Lawyers and TV executives debate televised trials Future entreprenuers The Communication and Media Studies cess...they intrude on the process.” (CMS) program, in conjunction with the Lawyers, for instance, might use a tele- take different paths Tisch College of Citizenship and Public vised trial as an opportunity to show off. Service, hosted a panel last night on “Law “I’ve never seen a thoughtful, contempla- BY ROB SILVERBLATT and Order: Debate Over Cameras in the tive lawyer on camera because it’s boring Daily Editorial Board Courtroom” in Braker Auditorium. and they know it,” Winslow said. The panelists included three keynote With the eye of the public on them, Robert Kindler, the Vice Chairman of speakers, including Wendy Murphy, a trial lawyers may take the stance that “it’s Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley, attorney and former prosecutor who works not about the truth, it’s about winning,” addressed a crowd last night on the unpre- with crime victims, women and children. Murphy said. dictability of career paths and the impor- Also participating were Wendy The panelists agreed that media hype tance of sustaining relationships with Whitman, Vice President of Court TV, and furthermore can hinder the fair progress of peers and mentors in determining future Dan Winslow, former Chief Legal Counsel a trial by influencing the jurors. success. to Governor Mitt Romney and current part- Nevertheless, disclosure can have marked The event, which took place in ner at Duane Morris LLP. Moderating the benefits, the panelists said. Carmichael’s faculty dining room, was event was Julie Dobrow, Director of CMS One such case was the trial of the own- sponsored by the Young Entrepreneurs at at Tufts. ers of the Rhode Island nightclub where 96 Tufts (YET) and was part of a conference The panel addressed the difficult balance people died in the highly publicized 2003 that also included two panel discussions. between full disclosure of a constitutionally fire. Throughout his speech, Kindler focused public process and the factors that often This trial was not televised, which the on the many scenarios that can lead to a prompt the decision to ban cameras from panelists said kept the public from learning CONOR HALLORAN/TUFTS DAILY career in business. “Life is unpredictable, trials, like the effect disclosure may have on about the injustice that had been done. Daniel Winslow gives a Judges perspec- career paths are unpredictable,” he said. the people involved in any given case. Defendants were given a plea bargain tive on the effects of cameras in a Court The traditional view of entrepreneur- “Trials are public, but nominally public,” that gave them punishments too small in Room. ialism is too limiting for this variety of Winslow said. “Some of the most intense relation to the crime, according to victims’ into account the fact that “justice isn’t just options, he said. “The concept [that] being events of a person’s life happens in a court family members. a label we slap on, it’s fairness,” Murphy an entrepreneur is limited to startups, I of law.” Sometimes programs like Court TV “are said. don’t think is true,” he said. The problem occurs, he said, when the only voice victims have,” Murphy said. — Katharine Seim Instead, Kindler said, the business spirit “cameras don’t simply convey the pro- Further debate on this subject must take finds its way into many places. As a law- see ENTREPRENEUR, page 2 Inside this issue tuftsdaily.com Today’s Sections NESCAC FOOTBALL CAMPUS COOKING News 1 Balance 11 Features 3 National 15 The Williams football The Daily provides a pair Arts | Living 5International 17 team ended a 31-game of traditional Chinese food Editorial | Letters 8 Comics 20 Trinity winning streak recipes. Classifieds 21 this past weekend. Viewpoints 9 see SPORTS, back page see FEATURES, page 3 National 11 Sports Back 2 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS | FEATURES Wednesday, October 4, 2006 Student think tank starting up Admissions questions among issues raised BY LETICIA FRAZAO and unsustainable energy.” The sec- Contributing Writer ond: “build an America that works MEETING the Class of 2011 as well as efforts As senior Eli Cohn put it, there for working families,” and the third: continued from page 1 to recruit African American stu- are “not enough social outlets at Tufts recently opened a chapter of increase socioeconomic diversity in who teach in their stated field of dents. Tufts.” While most of those pres- the Roosevelt Institution, a national higher education. interest. Coffin also fielded these ques- ent acknowledged this as a press- organization that calls itself “the Raifman said the community Coffin countered this concern, tions, referring to the Telescope ing issue, Reitman requested that nation’s first student think tank.” may be leaning the most toward the saying that he felt “ongoing advi- program, which each year brings those present “let this conversa- The institution’s university chap- first goal.