The Tufts Daily - Wednesday, October 13, 2021

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VOLUME LXXXI, ISSUE 19

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Wednesday, October 13, 2021

TUPD arrests houseless man found in Harleston Hall

by Jose Atienza

Contributing Writer

An unknown individual was arrested by the Tufts University Police Department at 1:11 a.m. on Sept. 7 after the department received a report of the person sleeping on a couch on the fourth floor of Harleston Hall.

Director of Public Safety Mary McCauley described both the events leading up to the incident and the charges that the individual received.

“A subsequent video review showed that [the individual] entered the building by following closely behind two students as they tapped into the residence hall,” McCauley wrote in an email to the Daily. “The individual was arrested for trespassing, was charged, and was released on his own recognizance. His criminal case is pending in Somerville District Court.”

McCauley added that this was not the first time TUPD

has found this individual on campus. “[The individual] was previously removed from Tufts property when he trespassed in February; he was not arrested or charged at that time but was advised not to trespass again,” McCauley said.

Arnav Shiva, a resident of Harleston Hall’s fourth floor, said that reporting the situation to TUPD, while not ideal, was necessary.

“I’m glad that the cops came to arrest him, but I wish it didn’t have to come down to that,” Shiva, a sophomore, said.

“If a random guy comes to your house who shouldn’t be there, fair enough to call the cops.”

Kiana Vallo, another resident of Harleston Hall, said she felt torn between pursuing criminal action and showing compassion to the individual.

“Any breach in safety is concerning in a sense because we do think of this as our home,” Vallo, a sophomore, said.

She acknowledged, however, that the treatment of the person

by TUPD might be too severe for this situation.

“It seems kind of harsh … because he never crossed the line of making someone uncomfortable,” Vallo said.

Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine, which advocates for the reform of TUPD, expressed in a written statement to the Daily its aversion toward TUPD’s action.

“We are saddened and disgusted, but not surprised, after hearing that TUPD arrested an individual experiencing houselessness for simply trying to find a place to sleep for the night,” SJP said. “With the anti-homeless architecture in Somerville, it is nearly impossible to find a place to sleep.”

Part of SJP’s work centers around its End the Deadly Exchange campaign, which seeks to demilitarize TUPD, and SJP posits that Tufts cannot be anti-racist until the

BEN KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Harleston Hall is pictured on Jan. 29, 2019.

Deadly Exchange is ended. SJP said the arrest was antithetical to University President Anthony Monaco’s commitment to make Tufts an anti-racist institution, and argued that Tufts perpetuated the criminalization of homelessness as a result.

“If Tufts is truly committed to anti-racist advocacy, they would offer our spare beds, couches, and resources to people with-

out arresting them,” SJP said.

“Unhoused people displaced

by Tufts’ gentrification deserve the university’s resources just as much as staff and students, not armed officers using their power to further displace them.

Criminalizing houselessness leads to a cycle of arrests, hearings, and debt that make houselessness and death even more likely.”

Medford, Somerville schools return to in-person instruction this fall

by Anton Shenk News Editor

After community discussion on how Medford and Somerville public school students should return to classes this fall, both districts implemented the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s policy mandating return to in-person, full-time instruction.

After DESE’s decision to end hybrid or virtual school modalities for the majority of its stu-

dents, discussions in Medford and Somerville quickly turned to determining what a return to in-person instruction should look like.

Both communities have sought to find balances between returning to pre-pandemic instruction and protecting student mental and physical health. Jeff Curley, chief of staff for Somerville Public Schools, shared what has shaped reopening discussions among Somerville community members.

“As in every community, people were in different places in terms of their comfort level with a return to full in-person learning,” Curley wrote in an email to the Daily. “On any issue, our role is to listen intently and thoughtfully, and to ultimately make decisions that we feel are in the best interest of all our students and staff. Safety [is] always at the center of our decision-making process, as well as ensuring that we follow state and federal guidelines.”

A similar sentiment was echoed in Medford. David

TOBIAS FU / THE TUFTS DAILY

West Somerville Neighborhood School located on Powder House Blvd is pictured.

Murphy, assistant superintendent for operations and finance for Medford Public Schools, explained the importance of the district’s return to in-person instruction.

“We know that it’s in the best interest of students to get them into school, to restore as much as possible a sense of normalcy and to provide the academic, social and emotional supports that are supposed to be what a K-12 educational experience is about,” Murphy said. “We can’t do that with full effectiveness in a virtual learning environment … There is something significant that is lost in the educational experience when students are not in person.”

In part, access to Tufts’ testing resources has made a return to in-person instruction easier for Medford and Somerville students. The partnership between Tufts, Medford, Somerville and the Broad Institute allowed public school students access to COVID-19 testing at a fraction of the normal cost, helping both districts identify and limit the spread of COVID-19 in classrooms.

Andre Green, chair of the Somerville School Committee, highlighted that the districts’ partnership with Tufts is building trust with communities that a return to in-person instruction would be possible.

OPINION / page 8

FEATURES / page 3

SPORTS / back

Where there’s a Will, there’s a way

Students turn passion projects into small businesses

The men’s and women’s cross country teams shine at NEICAAA championships

“[Somerville] was able to have the most robust testing regime, certainly in the state and probably in the country last year … and that also helped build confidence in the system,” Green said.

Building trust in communities became a critical part of both districts’ reopening processes. The formation of that trust, Green added, has been important as both cities seek to equitably reopen their schools.

“If you look back last year at schools [which] reopened throughout the school year last year, it was a nationwide constant, that when schools came back, white families came back at a higher proportion than Black and [Latinx] families,” Green said. “I think for a lot of districts, there’s a very real fear of having a separate but equal district, where we add a remote district for Black and Brown students, and an in-person one for white students. That was still a fear, even as we got to a place where it starts to feel more and more that we come back in person.”

According to Murphy, equity became a critical lens for making decisions about the 2021–22 school year in Medford as well.

“By maintaining a degree of structure within the school environment, we are able to alleviate some of the inequities that are see SCHOOL REOPENING, page 2 NEWS

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, October 13, 2021

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In-person K-12 instruction resumes in Medford and Somerville SCHOOL REOPENING

continued from page 1 grounded in society,” Murphy said. “Our responsibility is to maintain an environment that regardless of the circumstances under which a student is growing up, and regardless of what challenges may exist with regard to that student being able to learn, our charge is to eliminate those barriers and to position every student to maximize their potential.”

In addition to equity considerations, students’ mental and emotional well-being also became a driving factor in returning to in-person instruction. That principle was one Christine McWayne, a child study

and human development professor, hoped would be centered.

“Much of the burden of these changes to education during COVID-19 has fallen on children themselves. I think we underestimate the toll this is taking in our communities and on our children,” McWayne wrote in an email to the Daily.

“A focus on ensuring the physical safety of everyone is clearly paramount, but we cannot forget to attend to the well-being of the whole child.”

Somerville Public Schools teacher Tara Beardsley experienced firsthand the toll the pandemic took on students’ social and emotional health while teaching her students virtually last year.

“[Students] were really having a hard time,” Beardsley said.

“They messaged me all last year, and we talked about it over Zoom, and they’d [say], ‘We’re so depressed; we just want to be back in school.’

With students already having returned to classes over a month ago, Beardsley has already seen students’ mental health rebound. “[Students] are genuinely so happy and … they haven’t been this happy in a year and a half,” Beardsley said. “Kids feel like themselves again, feel like they have a place and feel that belonging. It just makes it worth it.”

Allison Kase, another Somerville Public Schools teacher, voiced a similar sentiment.

“I think it’s so impressive, the resilience that our students have,” Kase said. “They’re so happy to be back in school overall.”

With the first month of full in-person instruction passing earlier this October, Beardsley acknowledged that her district will require time to adjust to this return to normal.

“Are [students] going to struggle?

Of course they’re going to struggle, but in general I think they’re feeling like things are returning to normal and they feel safe … and they’re happy,” Beardsley said. “It’s just nice to see them being kids playing at recess and being silly. I think that the learning is going to come, it’s just going [to] take a bit.”

Computer science department leads discussion on facial recognition software

by Alexis Enderle Staff Writer

Bert Huang, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, hosted the first event in a series of seminars titled, “Making Real-World Data Science Responsible Data Science” for computer science students on Oct. 7. The series is run by the National Science Foundation-funded T-TRIPODS Institute, a multi-department, interdisciplinary effort across Tufts University that focuses on data science.

“The main theme of the seminar series is that it will feature people who have crossed disciplines to enact real policy or action to ensure safety of data science technology,” Huang wrote in an email to the Daily.

The seminar focused on facial recognition surveillance technology, with featured speakers Ben Ewen-Campen, a current Somerville city councilor and researcher at Harvard Medical School, and Kade Crockford, the director of the Technology for Liberty program at the ACLU of Massachusetts. The two worked together to pass a ban on the use of facial recognition technology in police investigations in Somerville in 2019.

According to Ewen-Campen, the ordinance requires new surveillance technology to go through a public approval process before implementation.

“We have passed what’s called a surveillance oversight ordinance which says any new surveillance technology that the [police department] … want[s] to buy, [these requests] actually have to come before the city council and have a public process, and then get an affirmative vote from the city council to either buy or or start using these technologies,” Ewen-Campen said.

Crockford explained how the process occurred without much debate in Somerville, and has since expanded to other communities in the state.

“I think [Ewen-Campen] actually reached out to me because our colleagues in San Francisco passed the nation’s first ban on government use of face surveillance. So [Ewen-Campen] was like, ‘Hey I want to do this in Somerville,’ [and] it was a relatively quick process,” Crockford said. “We got it done within six weeks or something, and then that really set off a chain reaction where other municipalities wanted to do the same thing, so we worked with folks in six other municipalities throughout the state to do that.”

After the ordinance passed in Somerville, the ACLU of Massachusetts has campaigned to pass municipal bans and educate both the public and local lawmakers about facial recognition surveillance technology and the dangers posed without proper oversight. Crockford further explained the goal to protect communities across the whole state.

“The blunt instrument of a total ban was what we thought was appropriate and necessary for municipal level law … to create the kind of regulations that we think are appropriate,” Crockford said.

Crockford explained the differences between three different forms of surveillance technology.

The first, face surveillance, is defined by Crockford as “the application of video analytics algorithms using biometric identifiers to video data.” This can include examining video data to piece together someone’s movements over a certain period of time.

Crockford explained the danger of face surveillance.

“There’s no real way of ensuring accountability and oversight, even if we had the best possible law that said, ‘Police can only activate [this] system in limited circumstances,’” Crockford said.

The second technology is emotion analysis, which, according to Crockford, is based on the idea that algorithms can determine what people are

feeling based on their physical characteristics. Crockford said that emotion analysis is not a “legitimate science” because it is extremely difficult to interpret emotions based on someone’s facial expression. “[Someone] might be smiling, but they’re actually extremely nervous — people have that reaction. They might be telling the truth, but fidgeting, because they are anxious because they’re in a police interrogation,” Crockford said. “The video analysis system might say, ‘Well, this person is being dishonest,’ when in fact they’re not — they’re just having a normal human response to a stressful situation.”

Crockford acknowledged that certain legitimate applications of this technology existed, such as a system that automatically alerts truck drivers if they appear to be falling asleep.

The third form of facial recognition technology is known as image matching. This technology is used when a post or video online shows a crime being committed, after which a police officer can use screen capture to get a clear image of the perpetrator’s face. They then take the image and other evidence to court, and through probable cause, request permission to use facial recognition technology to identify the suspect.

Crockford believes this technology is different from both

face surveillance and emotion analysis.

“It poses less of a threat to our basic civil rights and civil liberties because we’re not talking about analyzing all video surveillance data, [only] individual criminal investigations when a human being has identified a still image of a person … relevant to a criminal investigation,” Crockford said.

According to Crockford, Massachusetts has hundreds of different police departments, meaning that centralizing the process of image matching can prove to be effective in criminal investigations. Crockford proposed that local police should get a warrant to identify a suspect from an image and then take the image to the state police department, which has a facial recognition system.

“We think this is the right solution, because when there’s one algorithm that all police departments are using, it’s possible for there to be real oversight and accountability to make sure that that algorithm is independently audited [and] has low racial bias rates,” Crockford said. “It’s possible in that scenario for there to be oversight of police use, because there’s only one entity, the Massachusetts State Police, that is responsible for performing all of those searches … So that is the end game regulatory solution that we’re aiming for.”

MICHELLE LI / THE TUFTS DAILY

On Oct. 7, Bert Huang, assistant professor of computer science, hosted the first session of the seminar series “Making Real-World Data Science Responsible Data Science.”

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Features

3 Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Student-run small businesses flourish in the Tufts community and beyond

by Amelia Becker Features Editor

College is more than just a time for academics: It’s about exploring passions and trying new things.

For some, that means trying their hand at starting a business. A number of students have found the Tufts community to be a great place to build their businesses.

Senior Melody Khounchanh started a sustainable womenswear brand called Conscious by M in March 2020. She had made clothing for herself before, but used the time during quarantine to practice making garments for other people.

Conscious by M is currently selling standard clothing sizes, but

Khounchanh is hoping to do custom measurements in the future.

During her time at Tufts, Khounchanh has taken several classes on the impacts of the fashion industry, largely focusing on the environmental impacts and “greenwashing.” Conscious

by M is her effort to create a sustainable clothing brand, with everything from the clothing to the packaging to the shipping.

“With Conscious by M, I try to do sustainability in the best way I can,” Khounchanh said.

“One hundred percent sustainability is impossible, but everything I make is from secondhand clothing, and through garments that wouldn’t have been sold otherwise… Everything is made in

house so it’s only me working on the things.”

Khounchanh isn’t just creating sustainable clothing, she’s also sharing information about the fashion industry and steps that individuals can take to reduce their environmental impact.

“I [try] to put out knowledge and information that’s accessible to people,” she said. “If they aren’t able to buy the tops, at least they can visit the website and then read on how they can properly take care of the clothing, because a lot of it’s just … societal habits that we don’t know are harmful.”

Instagram has been a large part of how Conscious by M has grown since it started. Support

from both Tufts friends and home friends has also helped Khounchanh expand her brand’s reach.

“My high school friends and my family — they were there from the start, and honestly a bunch of Tufts people … Then because there’s so many students from everywhere at Tufts it’s kind of spread to their hometowns,” Khounchanh said. “But it’s all been word of mouth, Instagram, stuff like that.”

The furthest package Khounchanh has shipped went to the U.K. from California. She also had the chance to sell on Newbury Street last semester, expanding the reach of her brand further into Boston.

Senior Ryan HernandezAlmonte is another student who started a business during the pandemic. StudioYK.RY is Hernandez-Almonte’s graphic design business, which he started last summer after doing graphic design activism and civic engagement posts. Prior to that, Hernandez-Almonte designed the logo for the Tufts Latinx Center during a graphic design course at Tufts.

In addition to designing logos for different organizations, Hernandez-Almonte produced Peep!, an urban life magazine.

He got the idea for the magazine after an assignment in his see BUSINESSES, page 4

COURTESY GK KAY, MELODY KHOUNCHANH, RYAN HERNANDEZ-ALMONTE

The logos of Earrings by GK, Conscious by M and StudioYK.RY are pictured.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Features | Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Tufts community proves to be a critical space for student entrepreneurs BUSINESSES

continued from page 4 graphic design class to design a magazine layout for any article. Hernandez-Almonte had also written a couple of articles for his journalism class that he wanted to share.

“I had all these articles by the end of the semester that I was super proud of, and even the people in my class were very interested and I didn’t just want to hold them to myself,” Hernandez-Almonte said. “I felt like what I wrote was important and stories that needed to be told.”

The first edition of Peep! Magazine featured articles on sustainable fashion and placemaking.

“All of it was connected through urban life. What is urban life? What does it look like, especially for young people?”

Hernandez-Almonte said.

Hernandez-Almonte printed the magazine and sold it in Washington Square Park in New York City, where he got to interact with the community and passersby. He wanted to make a physical magazine to create a tangible experience for people.

Hernandez-Almonte’s ultimate goal is to one day have a physical studio in New York City that could be a place for creatives and young people.

Earrings by GK is another student-run business that started small but has since expanded. Senior GK Kay founded the business in October 2019 as a side hustle.

“I started selling the earrings that I was making at the Crafts Center just casually to friends and then more and more people, and increasingly people I didn’t know started asking about them,” Kay said.

Since starting Earrings by GK, Kay has changed the structure of their business a bit, from taking orders through DMs and payment through Venmo to creating an order form and a website.

Kay initially thought Earrings by GK would be temporary, but they have found working for themself to be enjoyable.

“Working for myself, and making earrings for myself, has been way more fun than working for a boss,” Kay said. “And getting to set my own amount of hours, it’s just been really incredible,” Kay said.

The idea of running their own business didn’t seem too far-fetched for Kay, whose parents run a small business.

“I’ve always known you could be an adult and run a small business and can

support you and your family … So it didn’t seem that crazy for me to keep going with it once it seemed pretty sustainable,” Kay said.

Kay has sold jewelry in the past to classmates and teachers in elementary school. Jewelry and wire have always been the mediums toward which they have gravitated.

“I’ve always been inclined towards wire and jewelry and stuff like that,” Kay said. “It just makes sense to me how to use it, and as an art form it just is very intuitive.”

Since elementary school, Kay took a break from making jewelry before returning to it in the Crafts Center their sophomore year when they were able to repurpose old materials they had at home.

“I did, actually, this whole copper collection and it was made from all beads and wires that I had when I was a child,” Kay said. “Just totally repurposing all the supplies, which was a really cool full-circle moment.”

Kay mostly does custom orders but will occasionally make a collection of a bunch of earrings in a similar style when they have a creative rush.

Earrings by GK has a queer person of color discount on their website to try to increase the accessibility of their earrings.

Kay also tries to incorporate reparations into their business as much as possible, including donating some of the money to mutual aid requests, bail funds and others in need.

“Bottom line is that I want my earrings to be accessible to everyone and having that discount for people that are often discriminated against in the employment market, specifically people who live at the intersection of being queer and POC,” Kay said. “It feels important to me to make it accessible for everyone.”

While Kay is unsure about whether Earrings by GK will remain a side hustle or whether they will try to expand the brand more post-graduation, they are clear about wanting to keep creating.

“I really like making earrings and it makes me super happy so I feel like I’ll definitely keep doing it, as long as people are interested in buying them,” Kay said.

For all of these students running small businesses, time management is crucial to

balancing their business, academics and everything else.

Hernandez-Almonte said he schedules time for graphic design, just like he does for classes and homework.

Khounchanh uses Google Calendar to balance her time and keep on track for business goals. She also highlighted how important it was to give herself breaks and make time for things she enjoys outside of school and her business to prevent burnout.

Kay has been figuring out how to manage their time for the business now that they can’t make earrings during Zoom classes. They have also been trying to balance their physical space, which is used for business, academics and leisure.

“It’s kind of weird to balance my physical space, especially doing so much work in my room; it’s also where I take my classes, make earrings and sleep and hang out,” Kay said.

The Tufts community has been an important space for these students to experiment and grow their businesses.

For Earrings by GK, their business started in the Tufts community but it has spread much beyond that. According to Kay, the vast majority of sales for Earrings

by GK now comes from people Kay has never met. They have sold earrings to every state in the U.S. besides Alaska.

Similarly, students at Tufts have been very supportive of Conscious by M and have helped Khounchanh spread her business beyond the Tufts community by sharing her clothing in their home communities.

Hernandez-Almonte said he too feels very supported on campus, especially when organizations reach out asking him to design logos for them.

So far he has done the logo for the Latinx Center, the Association for Latin American Students and Roti and Rum, the Caribbean dance group at Tufts,as well as for Conscious by M. For these students, and others who have started businesses on campus, their businesses are an integral part of their Tufts experience and their lives.

“It’s become a really big part of my life and it’s more than a craft,” Kay said. “It’s my job and something I’m really passionate about.”

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Sam Russo and David Wingens Potty Talk

Shower talk

We’ve all been there. You sit down in class on a hot day, only to realize that you just don’t smell as good as you should. You can blame it on the weather or the hill, or you can take matters into your own hands with one of the showers nestled in some of Tufts’ bathrooms, a feature that’s oddly omitted from every tour.

Last week, we left you “enviously gaz[ing]” down from Miner Hall’s cavernous all-gender lavatory to the opulence of the SEC. This week, we bring you through the SEC’s main doors, down a set of stairs, past Kindlevan Café, down another set of stairs, through a set of double doors and down a hall to the glory that is the SEC’s lower-level, all-gender restrooms. Here are housed what can only be described as ‘showers.’

At first glance, the showers seem runof-the-mill, but upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that they are run-of-themill. With standard twist-to-start technology and reasonably fast water heat-up times, they are only really notable for the veritable cornucopia of accessibility features they offer: a foldable bench for lounging, a metal railing and an emergency pull string, which we assume summons a Tropikale smoothie from Kindlevan.

Unfortunately, that attention to detail does not extend to the expected shower amenities, making us think that these showers might be purely decorative. The architects of the SEC did not think to include soap, shampoo, conditioner, towels or even loofahs, forcing smelly engineers to come prepared with their own shower accoutrements.

Towels might not be necessary, however, as the bathroom does come equipped with an exceptionally strong Dyson Airblade V, which is intended for hand drying but could easily be used to dry the rest of the body. Just throw yourself against the wall and spin in circles until the hot air reaches every nook and cranny.

The newest STEM building is not the only one endowed with showers, however.

In Lane Hall, a gymnasium-turned-oceanography-hub, you won’t even miss the towels because there’s literally no water in the showers in its downstairs gendered bathrooms. While these showers lack the SEC’s benches and Dyson Airblade Vs, one small dirty bar of orange soap lies lonely on the floor of the men’s shower.

We were elated to discover a mid-20th-century Voorhis Tiebout soap grinder mounted to the shower’s left wall, which would allow us to easily grind Voorhis Tiebout’s specialized soap bars into shreds for easy spreading.

With this, we call on The Tufts Daily to call on Tufts University to provide water and soap wherever — and whenever — there is a shower.

SEC Lower Level: 6.5/10 — Might just use the bench in here to enjoy my Tropikale in private.

Lane Hall Downstairs: 3/10 — If you want to shower here, bring a bucket.

Sam Russo is a junior studying computer science and cognitive and brain science. Sam can be reached at samuel.russo@tufts.edu. David Wingens is a junior studying international relations. David can be reached at david. wingens@tufts.edu.

ARTS & POP CULTURE

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Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Liz Cooper shows ‘Hot Sass’ at the Brighton Music Hall

YAS SALON / THE TUFTS DAILY

Singer-songwriter Liz Cooper is pictured.

by Yas Salon Arts Editor

Liz Cooper’s “Hot Sass” tour not only marks her first headlining tour since COVID19, but also a transformational moment in her career. The tour and accompanying album, “Hot Sass,” which was released on Sept. 3, is her first solo album; until “Hot Sass,” Cooper performed under the band name Liz Cooper & The Stampede. Cooper also departs sonically from her previous folk-rock releases. In place of her old sound, Cooper comes into her own with a grittier, soft-rock sound.

With a new sound and a new name in town, Liz Cooper stopped by Allston’s Brighton Music Hall on Oct. 2. Cooper was joined by New Madrid (a band, ironically, not from New Madrid, Mo., but instead hailing from Athens, Ga.), who opened with a psychedelic-esque set.

New Madrid’s sound was wonderfully crafted using a mishmash of distortion and loop pedals, and a particular highlight of the band’s set was the members’ occasional three-part

harmonies. The band’s stage presence also can’t go unmentioned; singer Phil McGill’s showmanship was energizing and captivating, and the band sufficiently raised the crowd’s energy prior to Cooper’s set.

Cooper, joined by drummer Ryan Usher, bassist Joe Bisirri and keyboard player Chase Johnson, soon took to the stage.

The band opened with “Slice of Life,” an upbeat number with a heavily distorted guitar solo from Cooper. Cooper played with a charming almost too-cool-tocare attitude, and it was impossible not to feel like she was a seasoned rock star. “Heart Shaped Candy,” a dreamy, reverb-heavy song punctuated by staccato drums followed. If there is one thing that sets Cooper apart from other artists, it is her distinct voice. There isn’t one succinct way to describe Cooper’s vocals; her voice is simultaneously buttery yet has a certain grit to it.

She almost sounds like a beautifully falsetto-ed Karen Dalton.

However, any comparison to another singer falls short — you have to listen for yourself (and you won’t regret it). Cooper’s

impressive guitar-shredding abilities are also noteworthy for a lead singer; in lieu of a separate lead guitarist, Cooper was the sole guitarist, shunning the usual rhythm guitar role that singers take on.

“Je T’aime,” a high-energy song with an insanely infectious repeating bass riff, started out with just bass and drums, while Cooper fiddled with pedals on the floor to create a delightful distorted sound. The fact that this song has less than 10,000 listens on Spotify is appalling, given how fun and infectious “Je T’aime” is. The band then jumped into “Motorcycle,” one of the highlights of the “Hot Sass” album.

Johnson’s synth playing took (figuratively) center stage on “Feeling Good,” a much more mellow number than the other tracks featured on “Hot Sass.” The chorus of the song is enchanting; as Cooper croons, “I’m not sure I’m feeling good no more,” her rising and falling vocals are nearly hypnotic.

The peak of the night was “Lucky Charm,” a nearly 10 minute-long song that opened with

instrumentals that built in intensity. Cooper didn’t just play the song, but gave an incredible performance, building up the audience’s energy with her super-cool attitude. When one audience member loudly declared (using language that is a bit crass for the Daily) that she had cool shoes, without missing a beat, Cooper replied “Thank you” before delving back into the song. Her ability to work off the crowd’s energy throughout the set was one of Cooper’s many strong suits.

Cooper also featured an esoteric cover of Julee Cruise’s “Falling” from “Twin Peaks” (1990–91) during her set, after which she praised all things Lynchian, including coffee, cigarettes and transcendental meditation, a noted love of David Lynch’s. Towards the end of the set, Cooper played two softer, more tender songs, “Shoot the Moon” and “Fragile Lips,” demonstrating her ability to effectively utilize a diverse range of sounds.

Before the final song of the night, Cooper brought onstage a comically large prop cigarette, which she used to introduce the

band; subverting the standard introduction of “on drums, on bass, etc.,” she introduced each band member as “on cig.” The band closed the set with the tour and album’s titular track, “Hot Sass.” The choice to play “Hot Sass” last was an understandable one — the song has a heavy punk vibe and was the most high-energy track of the night. When the song would begin to slow down, the drummer would burst into an ear splitting “one two three four” and the band would burst into a high-tempo riff. Despite the audience’s repeated cries for an encore, the band closed the set with “Hot Sass,” and the horde of 20- and 30-somethings filed out of Brighton Music Hall.

Over the course of the night, Cooper established herself as a triple threat: a guitarist, a divine vocalist and, to tie it all together, a performer. She is a must-see performer, and while the majority of the East Coast leg of her tour is over, she will be playing over 20 more shows throughout the U.S. over the next two months. If you have a chance to see her, you don’t want to miss that opportunity.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Pop Culture | Wednesday, October 13, 2021

tuftsdaily.com

Fall/winter fashion 2021 revives old trends, looks to the future

by RaiAnn Bu

Contributing Writer

As we move into October, fashion houses begin to release their most influential fashion runways of the year for the spring/summer lines, giving us a glimpse of the next trend cycle.

This begins with the September issue of Vogue, the most influential issue of the year, and spans to New York Fashion Week and beyond.

Though fashion houses are the technical creators of trends by debuting their own takes on what should be popular for the coming cycle, the people are the ones who cement them. Fashion week is great for a glimpse of new creations as well as inspiration from fashion-forward enthusiasts. These are some trends we have noticed for fall/ winter 2021 on and off the runway, in no particular order.

Academia The trial run of the vest and argyle coming into fashion last spring has paid off. As we continue into the colder seasons, the old collegiate look is a solid go-to. Originating from 1930s youth fashion, it was inspired by embracing a unisex look of Oxford shirts, loafers and trousers.

Since then, the preppy look has taken off to exude an old-money Americana style including sportswear, tailored figures, neutral prints and conservative silhouettes.

The rise of the preppy look can be strongly attributed to this summer’s theme of cottage core. In the nightmarish times of the pandemic came a rise of fairytale escapism to an easier, less stressful time, like out of a childhood novel. Academia is perhaps its fall/winter counterpart of personifying a storybook-like life.

Look out for: loafers, tennis skirts, trousers, blazers, button ups, trench coats,

vests, neutral prints, matching sets, rugby shirts or Gossip Girl inspired looks. See examples from Milan Fashion Week streetwear and the brand Alo Yoga.

Ballet After the rise of loungewear replacing casual workplace outfits, people have tired of parading around in the same stained sweatpants. The ballet/ballerina style is a new spin on athleisure, adding an aspect of dainty and neat while still maintaining comfort. We can see its inspiration mostly in athletic wear but also in casual streetwear with the integration of cardigans and flowing skirts.

Look out for: ballet skirts, cardigans/ shrugs, flats, wrap tops and unitards. See examples here.

Again, we have circled back to the even decades. It has been said that fashion follows a 20-year rule cycling from in trend, to tacky, to awful, to nostalgic, to back in trend. So back on the 60s and 80s trend we go. Through this season, we’ve seen many wave prints, checkerboard, space dye and flower prints.

This, paired with more vintage cuts like mid-thigh shorts, biker shorts and A-line dresses, applies modern takes to 80s trends and forms.

Look out for: kitschy jewelry, vests, plaid shorts, skirts, tights, leather, space knits, Jean Paul Gaultier, psychedelic prints and Pucci. See examples from the boutique Lisa Says Gah, the Dior 2022 Paris fashion show and Chanel’s Spring Summer 2022 runway looks.

Tech-wear

Experimental alternative Every decade has its style that plays on diverging from the mainstream. The current alternative style gained huge traction during the pandemic. It takes aspects of asymmetry, deconstruction, negative space and a “do it yourself” attitude, mirroring the unconventionality of a stay-athome lifestyle combined with the creativity of experimenting for the first time.

This style also carries an Asian influence from Korean and Chinese fashion.

East Asian technology has rapidly transformed over the past decade and this futurist perspective is reflected in clothing and style as well. This background, paired with fast trend cycles, has created the style.

Look out for: subversive basics, asymmetry, mesh, platforms, cut-outs, DIY style and restyling. See examples from Hyein Seo, Dion Lee and Paris Fashion Week streetwear.

60s and 80s revival

This year’s men’s fashion has been finding the shared ground between utilitarian and futuristic aesthetics. Arc’teryx stands as the brand exemplifying tech wear at the moment, offering sleek streamlined jackets with completely waterproof fabric.

Small upcoming brands, such as Acronym, are also gaining attention for their focus on the care and quality put into their products. However, it would be impossible to cite a male fashion trend without mentioning Nike or Yeezy.

Sneaker trends have been moving to a more blunt shape, with New Balance on a rebound. This shape takes inspiration from hiking shoes. Yeezy has also done more experimental shapes with futuristic and tech-inspired aspects.

Look out for: utilitarian-inspired wear, workwear, black, futurism and tech-influenced fashion. See examples from Travis Scott’s Nike Air Max 1, the Palace x Arc’teryx collection, the Y-3 x adidas Terrex collection and men’s streetwear from the past few years’ New York Fashion Weeks.

SOPHIE DOLAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

Fall and winter fashion trends are pictured.

When life throws you a financial challenge, you’ve proven you have what it takes to ace it.

Now it’s time to tackle your retirement savings at AceYourRetirement.org

Colette Smith Brands who deserve your dollars

Nynne

This week’s brand, Nynne, is more upscale and expensive than the brands highlighted thus far, but the company’s approach to sustainability is unique since it outlines eight clear focus groups. This tactic makes the sustainability objective clearer for the company itself, but it also helps the brand be more transparent with consumers, because they will have a better understanding of how Nynne is approaching sustainability.

The founder of the brand, Nynne Kunde, launched the brand after graduating from Istituto Marangoni in London in 2018 and “focus[ed] on craftsmanship and exaggerated silhouettes.” Scandinavian design elements of minimalism and clean lines are clear influences in the pieces, paying homage to Kunde’s heritage.

However, there are also louder elements that are indicative of London’s street fashion. Kunde succeeds at blending the two styles in her garments.

The brand’s mission statement says, “The label’s brand philosophy lies in the exploration of dressing as a form of power, and Nynne aims to uplift the everyday wardrobe of women globally through glamorous yet pragmatic clothing meant to amplify confidence.” Within this mission, Nynne also takes on the important goal of being a sustainable fashion brand.

To uphold its commitment to sustainability, the brand targets eight areas: materials, production, proximity, avoiding dead stock, consciousness, durability, the Diana concept and packaging. While some of these areas are self-explanatory, some require more information, like the Diana concept. The Diana concept gets its name from the brand’s signature piece: the Diana dress. According to the brand, “The Diana dress is appropriate for the office as well as a wedding or a walk in the park.” Owning versatile garments allows consumers to buy and own less, which in turn cuts down on production. The Diana concept, along with the brand’s durability goal, provides an argument for why the expensive garments that Nynne sells could be worth your investment. While it is a larger upfront cost, the higher quality and versatility mean that you will be able to buy fewer other products, saving money down the road.

Consciousness is another concept that requires more inspection. On how it wants to change the consumer’s mindset, the brand states, “By having a 6-month waiting time between the purchase and delivery we are encouraging consumers to buy in a more conscious and durable way.”

This is an interesting approach to sustainability because it is as if Nynne is reaching across the screen to change consumer behavior in addition to changing its own behaviors as a company. Other goals, like materials, production, proximity, avoiding dead stock and packaging, though still important, are similar to the approaches of other sustainable brands that have already been highlighted, in that they work to shrink the production process and use more environmentally friendly materials. For their AW21 collection, Nynne achieved their materials goal by using recycled or certified sustainable fabrics for 60% of all material used. Overall, Nynne’s high-end garments are an investment, but could be worth it because of their quality and versatility.

Colette Smith is a senior studying quantitative economics. Colette can be reached at colette.smith@tufts.edu.

Wednesday, October 13, 2021 | Arts & Pop Culture | THE TUFTS DAILY

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8 Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Opinion

8 tuftsdaily.com

OP-ED

The progressive leader Somerville needs: Will Mbah for mayor

by Caro Fett I moved back to Somerville to make it my home about a year after graduating from Tufts in the COVID-19 Class of 2020. I came back for the colorful three-story houses, the little libraries, the community gardens, the small businesses and the public art. More than all that, though, I came back for the progressive values and community care that I sensed in the Somerville air during my four years at Tufts.

But progressive values in the hearts of a city’s residents do not ensure justice in a city. Here in Somerville, rising rents have made it so that many low-income residents can no longer afford to live here. We are losing our neighbors to housing speculation and profit-hungry developers. Worse still, many of the places where low-income residents can still afford to live in Somerville are the places with the most pollution, poorest air quality and fewest trees.

And despite the abundance of Black Lives Matter signs hung up in windows and stuck into lawns, Somerville is not a place where Black residents can always feel safe and welcome. Between a school system where too many Black children get left behind and an armed police force with an exorbitant budget — two realities that are, of course, connected — Somerville has been systematically turning a blind eye to the needs of Black residents for far, far too long.

Every day, I am motivated by the knowledge that there are concrete, attainable solutions to these injustices. We can reimagine policing and create affordable housing and enact a Green New Deal here in Somerville.

How? By electing progressive

Jacob Fridman A Better Consensus

How the government can secure our digital liberty

T

he recent testimony of Facebook’s degradation of democracy and harm to millions of young women’s self-esteem has proven again that Washington must act.

Harvard Business School professor emerita Shoshana Zuboff coined the term “surveillance capitalism” to describe this destructive behavior. Using the Cambridge Analytica scan-

leaders to represent us in positions of power. That’s why I’m supporting Will Mbah for mayor of Somerville.

A native of Cameroon, Will was studying environmental science in Sweden until he won a visa to work in the United States.

He first settled with family in Taunton, Mass., but quickly fell in love with the vibrant community he experienced in Somerville and, despite knowing nobody in the city, moved here.

Even though Will held an advanced environmental science degree, he struggled to find work in the U.S. at first. He paid rent by working nights as a custodian at MIT and spent his days interning for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Because of rising rent in Somerville, Will had to move five times in six years. And when he tried to sign up for health insurance through MassHealth, he was denied.

Will experienced firsthand that the government is failing to take care of the people who need it most, and he wanted to create change. Inspired by Bernie Sanders’ campaign for president, Will decided to run for Somerville City Council in 2017 and won.

As city councilor, Will has created positive change based on his lived experience. Understanding the struggles of a renter, he spearheaded the creation of the Office of Housing Stability, which works to prevent the displacement of Somerville residents.

As a Black man who has experienced institutionalized racism and a father of two young children, Will appreciates the critical importance of police reform and accountability. On the council, he has worked to stop the discriminatory policing practice of racial profiling, pushed for the creation of a civilian oversight

dal that saw Facebook and the now-shuttered data firm manipulate users to disseminate Trump and Brexit ads as an example, Zuboff writes, “Surveillance capitalism threatens to remake society as it unmakes democracy … it undermines human agency, usurping privacy, diminishing autonomy and depriving individuals of the right to combat.”

TL;DR, Big Tech is using our personal information to make money without our consent, and that leads to some bad outcomes.

However, if this scares you, even just a bit, and you want to jump ship, it is insanely difficult to do so. Switching platforms means you also have to get friends and family to switch, because social networks

COURTESY GENE BUONACCORSI

Somerville mayoral candidate Will Mbah is pictured. of the police board and voted to reduce the police budget.

As mayor, Will is committed to disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline by reallocating funds from the police budget to the school budget in order to hire additional career and guidance counselors. He also plans to fully fund and empower the Civilian Oversight Board to hold the Somerville Police Department accountable.

In regards to environmental justice, Will plans to use his time as mayor to create and enact a Green New Deal in Somerville. This would mean divesting city funds from fossil fuels, protecting and expanding Somerville’s green spaces, improving stormwater infrastructure to decrease flooding, greening existing municipal buildings to be net zero, requiring all new construction to be net zero and so much more.

Will has been an environmental advocate since he was a stu-

dent in Cameroon. He understands the urgency of the climate crisis, has experience addressing environmental issues and is exactly the person we need to lead Somerville’s climate adaptation and mitigation efforts.

To summarize: Will’s lived experience as an immigrant, a Black man, someone who has struggled to pay rent and someone who has fought for environmental justice in his life and in his work distinguish him as the leader our city needs. He will fight hard on the most important issues facing Somerville and the United States, issues he understands intimately: racial equity, affordable housing and environmental justice.

If you’re ready to join me in supporting Will Mbah for mayor of Somerville, here’s what you can do: Vote. If you live in Somerville, whether it be in a dorm or an off-campus house, please vote in the Somerville local elec-

tions on Nov. 2. If you’re not registered in Somerville yet, you can find all the information you need to do so here.

The deadline to register to vote or change your registration info in Massachusetts is today, Oct. 13.

Volunteer. Join a phone bank or canvas and spend a couple hours talking to voters about Will’s progressive platform. Every additional volunteer brings Somerville closer to racial, environmental and housing justice!

revolve around other people being online, too. But it’s also insanely difficult to convince one person to switch because all of their friends and photos are on Facebook. Facebook, and even Google with its own grasp on utilities that connect schools, companies and hobbyists, holds our personal lives hostage to enrich itself in ad money and doesn’t appear to give a thought to the destruction of personal or societal liberty. That is why it should be considered a monopoly.

To its credit, Facebook does allow you to download and transfer your data to another platform, but it’s buried in the settings, not applicable to all other social media and not advertised because they want you to stay on Facebook.

Yet, there is hope. In 2018, Congressman Ro Khanna released an Internet Bill of Rights that marks your digital life as your personal property. Under the bill, you have the right to control who can access your digital life and for what purpose, and you can move it anywhere you want (as with physical property).

New regulations could force all social media platforms to advertise easy-to-use movement of your photos and posts around the Internet, just like our country’s adoption of privacy policies.

This could also be used for Section 230 reform to make companies liable for their algorithms that handle the data and to bar facial recognition software that makes the U.S. look more like China — far from anything the Founders intended.

And while Frances Haugen has mentioned being against breaking up Facebook because it would not result in the abolition of algorithms that are the root of widespread democratic and mental health breakdowns, buying apps like Instagram and WhatsApp is the epitome of anti-competitive behavior that tech giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon have used to crush competition, especially regarding privacy-focused rivals. Such a drastic measure would at least deter more data conglomerates from popping up and give consumers a sliver more of freedom in the marketplace.

Caro Fett graduated from Tufts in 2020 with a double major in environmental studies and environmental relations, a self-designed major focused on developing environmental stewardship throughout society.

Caro has been volunteering on Will Mbah’s campaign for mayor of Somerville and is passionate about empowering young people to get involved with local politics. Caro can be reached at carofett98@gmail.com.

Jacob Fridman is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Jacob can be reached at jacob.fridman@tufts.edu

Spo r t s

Wednesday, October 13, 2021 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

9

Women’s tennis hits its stride, men’s Marley shines

by Steven Landry Staff Writer

With both Tufts tennis teams’ fall seasons winding down, these squads showed off the hard work they’ve been putting in throughout the semester this past weekend.

The women’s team was up at Middlebury for a three-team

draw that included the host Panthers, the Bowdoin Polar Bears and the Jumbos. The men’s team was in Lewiston, Maine, where they shared the court with five other Northeast sides: Amherst, Bowdoin, Colby, Skidmore and Trinity.

With a traditional tournament style format, the Bates’ Wallach Invitational included four flights

of singles and two doubles flights.

On his 21st birthday, senior Paris Pentousis lined up with classmate Isaac Gorelik and the pair advanced to the semifinals before being outed by the eventual flight winners. Tufts’ second flight, a duo of junior Josh Belandres and first-year Derin Acaroglu, also reached the later stages of the draw, losing in the semifinals.

COURTESY TUFTS WOMEN'S TENNIS

Tennis players Tilly Rigby (left) and Ellie Christensen (right) are pictured after their game against Wesleyan.

Oliver Fox Sports and Society

Of mascots and men

M

onday marked the first nationally recognized Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the United States. For millions of NFL fans like myself, the first thing we did was watch the Kansas City Chiefs lose to the Buffalo Bills just as the clock ticked past midnight on the East Coast.

The Chiefs lost in front of tens of thousands of their home fans at Arrowhead Stadium, many cheering on their team with their infamous “tomahawk chop” chant. As the players walked off the field, they hung their arrowhead-embla-

zoned helmets in shame from the loss.

I’d wager almost no one in the NFL front office thought twice about putting the Chiefs, whose branding is dyed in the wool with blatant appropriation of Indigenous customs, on the eve of a holiday that celebrates the history and culture of Indigenous people. The Chiefs, as well as the countless other professional and amateur sports teams that use Indigenous culture as mascots, are a persistent reminder that we still do not take seriously how problematic they really are.

Indigenous-derived names and mascots in sports are widespread; the four major North American sports — ice hockey, basketball, football and baseball — include a total of four teams with such names. While these are the most visible, a database from the National Congress of

American Indians shows over 1,900 K-12 schools have “native ‘themed’ mascots.”

The main argument for continuing to use these images in sports is that these names and mascots are not about anything other than sports, and attempts to change them is just another overreach of the modern wave of political correctness. This viewpoint is shallow and incomplete, much like the stereotypes its defenders hope to propagate.

Indigenous advocacy groups have been calling for an end to the use of images and names that stereotype and appropriate their culture and history since the 1940s. Yet in 2021, even liberal strongholds like Atlanta and Chicago still field professional teams named the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Blackhawks. The apathy and inaction surrounding this continued use is eerily sim-

Tufts continued to have players go deep into the bracket in the second flight. Middlebury tournament Flight B winners junior Rishabh Sharda and senior Dylan Glickman earned a first-round bye, before cruising to the finals to meet teammates sophomore Corey Marley and first-year Vuk Vuksanovic.

Marley and Vuksanovic clinched the flight as well as bragging rights with an 8–3 victory.

Facing Sharda and Glickman, who have experience with one another, it was imperative that Marley and Vuksanovic made sure that nothing came easy.

“We returned really well and put a lot of balls in play,” Marley said. “The key was not giving away a lot of free points.”

Nine Jumbos competed in singles draws, with six of them advancing to the semifinal round. In Flight A, Gorelik and Sharda both strung together a few solid matches. Gorelik reached the semifinals before losing to Tristan Bradley of Bowdoin, who would go on to defeat Sharda in the finals.

However, Tufts continued to have players reach the later stages of the tournament — Belandres reached the final of Flight B where he lost in a tiebreak. Flight D of singles was flooded with light blue, as all three Jumbos reached the semifinals. The final came down to sophomore Oliver Obeid and doubles winner Marley. As expected, these teammates engaged in a hard-fought match that ended with Marley winning in a tiebreak.

The men’s team will suit up for its final fall competition this weekend at the Wesleyan Invitational.

In Vermont, the women’s team may have exceeded its own high expectations on NESCAC-rival Middlebury’s home courts. Unlike previ-

ous fall competitions with a standard tournament format, these matches were played as part of a hidden dual. This meant that players would not advance or be eliminated, and there were no awards handed out at the end of the weekend.

Despite this, the Jumbos were ecstatic for the opportunity to hone their skills and face some of the opponents they’ll see come spring competition.

With 14 players on the roster and limited spots for matches, competition within the team has elevated this group’s performance.

“Having a bunch of people competing within the team made everyone excited to go out this weekend, especially against Middlebury,” senior Maggie Dorr said.

This excitement was tangible early on, as Tufts took the first two matches of the day in doubles draws against Bowdoin.

Tufts would go on to tally nine more singles victories out of 14 that day. On Sunday, the Jumbos were a class above their NESCAC opponents. Dropping only two matches out of 15, the Jumbos showcased the talent that earned them a final four berth last spring.

For doubles duo junior Tilly Rigby and first-year Ella Christensen, their fall season will be extended as they head to Georgia for the ITA Cup starting on Thursday. With this being the last chance for most of the roster to play nonTufts opponents, this boost of morale and momentum will make an already competitive group even more determined.

Even with this success, it’s clear that there is no space for complacency.

“There’s still so much more to be done,” Dorr said. “[We] have to stay on top of it in the offseason.”

ilar to how the U.S. has treated Indigenous tribes for its entire history: horrifically.

Sports have never been disconnected from America’s larger culture, and what happens on the field, in the stands or on the helmets of players, can have a profound impact on marginalized groups and individuals.

Social scientists and psychologists have repeatedly shown the detrimental impact these names and mascots have on Indigenous people, particularly children.

Additionally, these stereotypes promote an incomplete and sometimes extremely offensive notion of Indigenous culture and society that does nothing to improve the fraught relationship between tribes and the U.S. The names and mascots are problematic on their own, but allowing teams to keep them sends an even worse message

to Indigenous communities, and it’s one America has been sending them for centuries.

Land theft, unequal treaties and repeated national disrespect for indigenous issues is nothing new, but the unwillingness to attempt the bare minimum to rectify our shameful history shows this is about much more than sports.

Indigenous people are not mascots like Buffaloes, Broncos or Bears. They’re Americans and, more importantly, people. Changing the status quo in sports is by no means the whole staircase, but it’s an important step towards respecting those who called Kansas City home before the Chiefs.

Oliver Fox is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Oliver can be reached at oliver.fox@tufts.edu.

TRASHING ONE EGG WASTES 55 GALLONS OF WATER

10 Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Sports

tuftsdaily.com

Cross country impresses at season’s first championship meet

by Arnav Sacheti

Assistant Sports Editor

This past Saturday, Tufts cross country competed at the NEICAAA championships at Franklin Park in Boston, Mass.

The women finished 10th overall in the varsity 5K race and fifth in the sub-varsity 5K race, while the men, who did not have their top eight runners race at the meet, finished fourth overall in the sub-varsity 8K race.

For the men, although the experience of running without their top runners was different, they managed to find success and learn something new about their team.

“It was a solid day for the team, our top eight didn’t run because they’re resting for the [Connecticut] College meet this coming weekend,” sophomore Adam Bernstein said. “The objective wasn’t to have a great team score. It was more just [to] have people get a solid race in and feel good.”

Bernstein was the top runner in the men’s race, finishing his 8K in under 27 minutes for the first time at 26:46. That time gave him 17th overall in the race.

“I was super happy with [my performance],” Bernstein said.

“I honestly hadn’t felt like I’d run a really solid 8K yet this season. It was great to run a good time because a lot of the courses we were running earlier in the season were really hilly.”

The relatively flat course at this meet contributed to six runners running under 28 minutes.

The women were led by senior co-captain Danielle Page, who finished fourth overall in the varsity race with a time of 17:35. Junior Meghan Davis and senior co-captain Anna Slager also performed well, finishing with times of 18:36 and 18:46 respectively. The sub-varsity women were led by junior Kate Bidgood, who posted a time of 20:10.14, good for the 34th position in the race.

For both teams, the combination of the flat course, the energy and the circumstances surrounding the meet contributed to their individual and team success. Both the men’s and women’s varsity and sub-varsity races featured Div. I runners. Bernstein specifically noted how the runners from Dartmouth College pushed them.

“The fact that it was a Div. I and Div. III combined meet meant that some of the guys at the top of the sub-varsity race were Div. I runners,”

COURTESY MICHAEL SCHMIDT

Cross country runners compete at the All-New England Championship at Franklin Park in Boston, Mass. on Saturday, Oct. 9.

Bernstein said. “There were guys from Dartmouth who were running in the sub-varsity race with very fast times and they pushed the pace from the front.”

Since the race was in the Boston area, many Tufts alumni were able to come out and support the Jumbos.

“We had a bunch of the guys that were on the team last year and a few guys from years prior, and they were cheering really loud in different spots around the course,” Bernstein said. “It was fun to have a lot of people hyping us up and seeing that Jumbo pride extending to the alumni was cool.”

As the Jumbos get deeper into championship season, there are few lessons to be learned from this meet. Bernstein noted that coach Michael Schmidt emphasizes the importance of going out fast in a race, especially in a big race where runners have to create a position for themselves with so many people to pass.

The Jumbos found that strategy to work well, given their success.

For both the men and the women, the Jumbos’ next meet will be this Saturday at the Connecticut College Invitational at Harkness Park in Waterford, Conn. This is Tufts cross country’s last full-team meet before the NESCAC meet.