Where You Partly Cloudy Read It First 73/57 THE TUFTS DAILY Est. 1980 VOLUME LXIV, NUMBER 14 WEDNEsday, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012 TUFTSDAILY.COM Petition requests access Africana Studies launches new to Cousens weight room major and minor BY JE nn IFER WHITE think they care is why I’m asking BY BRIO nn A JIMERSO N Daily Editorial Board for this change in policy and not Daily Editorial Board just silently grumbling.” A number of students and com- Ricci believes reopening the Following several years of munity members are petitioning Lunder weight room to the stu- negotiation between the stu- for the Athletics Department to dent body at-large will be an effi- dent body and the adminis- reopen the Lunder Fitness Center cient use of space, particularly tration, Tufts’ new Africana in Cousens Gymnasium to the when the weight lifting area of Studies program is settling entire Tufts community, following the new Steve Tisch Sports and into its first month on the this year’s enactment of a policy Fitness Center is crowded and Hill, complete with a new that limits the weight room space space is limited. director, a set curriculum and to varsity sports teams. In the past, when Cousens student interest. The petition comes after the was the only fitness facility on The faculty of the School opening at the start of the semes- campus, varsity teams displaced of Arts and Sciences in May ter of the 42,000-square-foot community users during reserved voted in favor of a proposal Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness times for team workouts. to create an Africana studies Center, which houses a separate Now that varsity teams have major and minor. 8,500-square-foot fitness space their own area, they do not With 59 faculty members dedicated to the entire Tufts have to schedule space in the in favor, seven against and community, featuring 80 brand- new fitness facility, allow- seven abstentions, the vote new exercise machines. The ing the greater community to affirmed the efforts of a long- Tisch Center’s goal is to provide use the fitness center without standing student-led push to more and better opportunities time restrictions, Director of include Africana studies in for community members to get Athletics William Gehling told the curriculum. involved in fitness. But, accord- the Daily in an email. Students staged a march ing to the petition, some stu- Gehling said that the to Ballou Hall in November dents and alumni are unsatisfied Athletics Department is in the 2011 and occupied an admin- CourtesY SOPHIA WRIGHT with the size of the new space. midst of assessing the depth istrative office, presenting The Africana Studies program is finally a reality on the Hill this semester Since Nathan Ricci (LA ’08) of the problem addressed in a list of demands regarding after years of negotiations, including a student-led march to Ballou Hall launched the electronic petition the petition and determining a establishment of an Africana last November. on TuftsLife last week, 233 people thoughtful response. Studies program. have signed, bringing the issue to “I have asked my staff to Between the May faculty of Sociology Paula Aymer, will be her responsibility to the Athletics Department’s atten- investigate the issues and clarify meeting and the start of the director of the Africa and the create guidelines for the pro- tion, Ricci said. the reality so we can then con- semester, the logistics of the New World minor program gram and iron out the remain- “Whoever was doing the plan- sider a tweak to our policy for the new major and minor began since 2010, as head of the ing details. ning knows what they are doing greater good,” he said. to fall into place. Africana Studies program. She plans to approach and really cares about the physi- Petition supporters said they Dean of Arts and Sciences Aymer agreed to direct the Africana studies through a cal fitness of the Tufts commu- Joanne Berger-Sweeney program for at least one aca- nity,” Ricci said. “The fact that I see COUSENS, page 2 appointed Associate Professor demic year, during which it see AFRICANA, page 2 Search continues for papier-mache cow Granoff lobby after fulfilling its Reynolds steps down role as a prop for a ritual dur- ing the World Damba Festival on Sept. 15, according to Rawitsch. as VP for operations The statue was on loan from a Vermont artist that provided it to BY NI N A GOLDMA N told the Daily in an email. Tufts free of cost. Daily Editorial Board Reynolds’ responsibilities “In terms of materials, [its worth included maintaining and is] very minimal. It’s a papier-mache Vice President for Operations improving the Tufts campus cow, so it’s mostly newspaper and Dick Reynolds (A ’67) on Oct. 9 through large-scale construc- paint and whatever they used to will hand over the position to tion projects. prop it up,” he said. Linda Snyder, former vice presi- Under his supervision, the More important than the mon- dent for campus planning and university began spending $30 etary cost is the creative value of facilities at Dartmouth College. million a year to finish necessary the cow, Rawitsch said. Reynolds has held the posi- maintenance projects on cam- “It takes a long time to fabri- tion since January 2010, when pus, such as work in Barnum cate and that’s more the issue,” he he assumed the role ad interim Hall, according to Reynolds. said. “It’s not a sort of missing item while the university looked to “We’ve doubled the amount of that you can just give some money replace former Vice President money being spent per year on to the person and they can just for Operations John Roberto. deferred maintenance,” he said. replace it.” With over 20 years of ser- “The place was falling apart.” Rawitsch said the Department vice on the Board of Trustees Reynolds said he is also of Music has posted about the Committee on Buildings and pleased with his department’s cow on its Facebook page and on Grounds, Reynolds said he offi- efforts to beautify the campus TuftsLife, put up flyers around cam- cially became Vice President of in ways that are more visible pus and asked various Tufts-related Operations soon thereafter. and less expensive than main- Twitter users to send out messages “I’ve had a great time,” tenance work, such as planting about the missing statue. Reynolds said. “It was a great more trees or the recent redesign In addition, TUPD Deputy Chief way to come full circle and of crosswalks at Powder House CourtesY JEFFREY RawitscH Mark Keith said TUPD has alerted back to where I started.” Boulevard and Professors Row. A life-sized papier-mache cow was stolen from the lobby of Granoff the Department of Facilities, UGL Reynolds’ work in the past “It’s perception,” Reynolds Music Center last week. Unicco, The Office of Residential few years has been crucial said. “It’s not spending a lot of Life and Learning and the Office of to Tufts’ Operations divi- dollars, it’s focusing on detail.” The Tufts University Police ment went missing on Sept. 18 Fraternity and Sorority Affairs about sion, Executive Vice President Reynolds credited the Department (TUPD) is on the look- sometime after 6 p.m. and has not the missing cow. Patricia Campbell said. Operations staff with much out for a life-sized papier-mache been seen since. “We’re just trying to get the “During his tenure, [Reynolds] of the progress made during statue of a dairy cow that went “We’ve had a couple of leads information out there so anyone has been a highly valued mem- his time at Tufts, particularly missing from the Granoff Music with the police, and they’ve been who sees the cow or knows any- ber of our community, illustrat- Director of Facilities Bob Burns, Center lobby last week. very cooperative and very help- thing about its whereabouts can ing the best qualities of senior whom Reynolds hired in 2010. Granoff Events and Public ful and really taking it seriously,” get in touch,” Keith said. leadership: integrity, commit- “I don’t actually do any- Relations Manager Jeffrey Rawitsch said. ment, imagination, profession- Rawitsch said the bovine install- The cow was placed in the —by Martha Shanahan alism and humor,” Campbell see REYNOLDS, page 2 Inside this issue Today’s sections Ring in the new sea- News 1 Op-Ed 9 son with music fes- “A Familiar Beast” is tivals and haunted a simply-written but Features 3 Comics 10 Halloween tours in the striking novella. Arts & Living 5Classifieds 11 Boston area. Editorial | Letters 8 Sports Back see FEATURES, page 3 see ARTS, page 5 2 THE TUF T S DAILY NEWS Wednesday, September 26, 2012 Athletics Department to consider weight room petition COUSENS continued from page 1 understand why Tufts’ varsity athletes need private space for team workouts but would like to use the space when var- sity teams are not in there. Currently, the Cousens weight room is locked when var- sity teams do not have the area reserved. “This is the first time in my Tufts his- tory where they restrict community access completely to a part of the campus,” Alex Bloom (LA ’08) said. “If you have the facili- ties, why not let everyone use them?” Women’s varsity field hockey team cap- tain Lia Sagerman, a senior, said varsity athletes value having a facility reserved entirely for team workouts, adding that the varsity-only policy provides teams with more space and fewer time constraints.