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Where You Snow Showers Read It First 39/29 THE TUFTS DAILY Est. 1980 VOLUME LXIV, NUMBER 50 TUEsday, NOVEMBER 27, 2012 TUFTSDAILY.COM SigEp to move into WinterFest discontinued due to house on Pro Row poor attendance, lack of interest BY JOSH WEINER established a stricter set of guide- BY AUDREY MICH A EL Daily Editorial Board lines,” McCarthy said. “A lot of Daily Editorial Board brothers realize we have to take The former residence of the care of this house and don’t want WinterFest, a weekend-long fraternity Sigma Nu (SigNu) to lose it again.” series of campus events that at 92 Professors Row will next He expressed confidence that was held in early December for year house the fraternity Sigma the brothers will demonstrate the first time last year, will not Phi Epsilon (SigEp), according responsibility in their new home be revived this year. to the Office of Fraternity and and believes the fraternity will Members of Programming Sorority Affairs. benefit from residing in a house Board cited a lack of student SigEp recently signed a one- together again. interest as reason to reallocate year agreement for the building, “It’s great to have an on-cam- the over $24,000 of funding which currently houses female pus space where guys can be allotted last fall for the event. transfer students, according to together, especially the younger “[Tufts Community Union] Director of Fraternity and Sorority guys, who represent the future Senate and Programming Affairs Su McGlone. of the organization,” McCarthy Board decided that WinterFest The fraternity has been with- said. “The fact that they’ll be able was too costly to continue out a house since an incident to live together and start up a having, given the lackluster during Senior Week in May 2011, brotherhood at an earlier point reception it had last year,” in which SigEp’s alumni held an in their college lives is really Programming Board Co-Chair unsanctioned party at their for- meaningful.” Christopher Blackett, a senior, mer residence at 114 Curtis St. Stephen Ruggiero, a SigEp told the Daily in an e-mail. The alumni party damaged the brother and member of the fra- “It ended up being a grossly house so severely that the land- ternity’s housing committee, said expensive flop,” Programming lords refused to let the brothers the brothers have shown respon- Board Co-Chair Mayan Lendner, return, SigEp Chapter President sibility in their work to regain an a senior, added. Michael McCarthy, a senior, said. on-campus house. The administration created McCarthy said he is relieved “We’re very excited about WinterFest as a replacement for that the yearlong search for a solidifying our spot on campus,” the Naked Quad Run (NQR), new house has ended. He said Ruggiero, a junior, said. “It’s a according to Office for Campus CAROLINE GEILING / THE TUFTS DAILY SigEp will be especially cautious reward for the hard work we’ve Life (OCL) Assistant Director After its debut last year, WinterFest will not be returning to campus to avoid another incident as put in over the past year, and will David McGraw. this December. damaging as that which occurred help us to recruit and maintain Former University President student participants. gested] we should give it a try in spring 2011. brothers and to maintain our vis- Lawrence Bacow banned NQR, “[WinterFest] was an idea here,” McGraw said. “We signed a lot of account- ibility on campus.” a decades-long Tufts tradition, that had been successfully “It was more of a trial run to ability and liability forms, and in 2011 because of safety con- implemented at other institu- see SIGEP, page 2 cerns and injury rates among tions, so some people [sug- see WINTERFEST, page 2 SSDP to host premiere of drug O’Briens return to Irish war documentary Dancing Championships BY Jam ES POULIOT The feature documentary ited Tufts and showed clips of BY XA NDER LA NDEN kids ready to compete as soon as Daily Editorial Board comes as a sequel to Booth’s the then-unfinished film. At Contributing Writer they can,” she said. “American Drug War: The Last the upcoming event, the full Conor’s appreciation for the The Tufts chapter of Students White Hope” (2007) and focus- movie will be accompanied by Tufts students and siblings competitive aspect of Irish dance for Sensible Drug Policy es on individuals whose lives a question-and-answer ses- Claire and Conor O’Brien earlier is in line with his past experience (SSDP) has invited award- have been affected by what sion with Booth, according to this month qualified indepen- as a high school athlete. winning documentarian Kevin Booth alleges to be a failed war Co-President of SSDP Lauren dently for the 2013 World Irish “I balanced dance with run- Booth to campus on Dec. 4 for on drugs. Traitz, a junior. Dancing Championships, which is ning track in high school, and I’ve the world premiere of his new The event is a follow-up to Booth said that his movie’s scheduled to take place in Boston always treated it as a sport rather movie, “American Drug War 2: a previous SSDP event hosted main focus is a young boy who this spring. than an art,” he said. “I’m not as Cannabis Destiny.” in April at which Booth vis- was diagnosed with a Stage IV After winning the New England into the performance associated brain tumor at the age of two and Oireachtas, a regional dance com- with Irish dance as I am interested later fell into a 40-day coma. petition that took place two weeks in training to compete.” His parents discovered a ago, Claire, a senior, and Conor, Claire serves as co-president cannabis oil manufacturer a sophomore, will be attend- of the Tufts Irish Dance Team, named Rick Simpson who ing their sixth and 10th World which, she explains, gives those claimed to have cured his own Championships, respectively. who are passionate about Irish cancer, as well as that of thou- At the World Championships dance but have no access to a sands more patients, with an in Belfast, Ireland last year, Claire dance school the opportunity extremely potent form of can- secured the 10th spot in the com- to participate. She considers the nabis oil. petition and Conor the sixth. team a way of bringing those con- The child’s parents then Claire O’Brien began dancing nected or interested in Irish step began sneaking the oil into at the age of five, and her young- dance together and exposing the the boy’s feeding tube, taking er brother was left behind to sit Boston and Tufts communities to over a hundred hours of hid- through her classes each week, but the sport. den camera footage as they eventually becoming involved. “Every Irish dancer realizes that did so, Booth said. The siblings compete indepen- it’s not the biggest sport around, so In just a few days, the child dently but practice and cross-train we all feel an obligation to get out was awake and eating, and together regularly. Residents of there and perform to keep it alive,” brain scans indicated that the nearby Newton, Mass., the sib- she said. “After all, people become tumor had disappeared. lings return three to four times interested in Irish dance by seeing Booth hopes to use stories each week to train at the O’Shea- it live.” like this, in conjunction with Chaplin Academy, which they have Alexa Petersen, a senior, is co- other tales of people whose attended since early childhood. president of the Irish Dance Team lives have been affected by Claire believes that Irish dance with Claire and has competed at cannabis and the illegal drug the World Championships eight JAMES CHOCA / TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES is taught in a way that is inherently Award-winning documentarian Kevin Booth will visit campus next trade, to promote drug policy competitive. times, though she retired from her week to premiere his new documentary, “American Drug War: The “Going to dance class, even as Last White Hope.” see SSDP, page 2 a young girl, was all about getting see DANCE, page 2 Inside this issue Today’s sections Judicial Advocates help News 1 Op-Ed 9 students navigate the No need to look for a university’s disciplin- “Silver Lining” in this Features 3 Comics 10 ary process. standout film. Arts & Living 5Classifieds 11 Editorial | Letters 8 Sports Back see FEATURES, page 3 see ARTS, page 5 2 THE TUF T S DAILY NEWS Tuesday, November 27, 2012 Programming Board, OCL pro- mote end-of-semester activities WINTERFEST by what we could do.” continued from page 1 McGraw added that many see if people wanted something student groups also pres- [to replace NQR], but it didn’t ent end-of-semester perfor- work out, so we didn’t think mances the same weekend as spending that much money for WinterFest. something that people weren’t “We were trying to start really interested in would be something big and new on top worth it,” Lendner added. of all these other student per- WinterFest took place last formances,” he said. “It just year on the weekend of Dec. 9 really competed more than it and lasted four days. was uplifting everyone.” “There weren’t many people As of now, there are no plans going to most of the events,” to replace WinterFest, accord- Lendner said. “I think the four- ing to Lendner. day span might have had an However, both Lendner and effect on it.” Blackett hope something dif- Lendner explained that the ferent will be planned in the decision not to hold another future.