October 26, 2015

Norovirus hits Tufts football, field hockey teams before Homecoming games see FEATURES/ PAGE 3

Tufts clinches victory at Williams for first time since 1981

Tom Hanks delivers superb performance in new Steven Spielberg-directed drama, “Bridge of Spies” see ARTS AND LIVING / PAGE 5

see SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXX, NUMBER 32

Monday, October 26, 2015

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

tuftsdaily.com

Protests continue over Tufts’ use of non-union construction labor

by Ariel Barbieri-Aghib Contributing Writer

The Tufts administration’s hiring of non-union workers and companies for university construction projects has been challenged by protest efforts since this summer in the form of flyers, signs and, in the past two weeks, mobile billboard trucks on campus.

These actions have been organized by the Boston Metropolitan District Building Trades Council (MBTC), an umbrella organization that works with and represents unionized construction in the Boston area, according to Chelsea Feuchs, the hospital and higher education campaign coordinator for the MBTC. The MBTC decided to lobby Tufts due to the large number of ongoing construction projects on campus, including the Science and Engineering Complex (SEC), located between

Anderson, Robinson and BromfieldPearson Halls, that do not utilize fully union-employed labor.

“We want Tufts to make a commitment to treating workers well, meaning good pay and benefits alongside safer conditions and better training,” Feuchs said.

According to Vice President of Operations Linda Snyder, the administration was willing to compromise with MBTC during their last meeting, but MBTC was uninterested.

“We’ve had several meetings, but [they’re] not interested in the things we put on the table,” she said.

MBTC continuously demanded that all major construction should be done with union only workers in order to ensure that workers receive good wages, benefits and strict safety standards, according to Snyder.

Ana Sofia Amieva / The Tufts Daily

see CONSTRUCTION, page 2

Protestors call for Tufts to only hire unionized construction labor for ongoing construction projects.

Tufts students for NARAL protest at Trump rally

by Gil Jacobson

Contributing Writer

Students from Tufts Students for National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), a chapter of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, joined a total of approximately 20 people to protest at a rally for U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump in Tyngsborough, Mass. on Oct. 16.

According to Tufts Students for NARAL President and founder Samantha Berg, students protested because of Trump’s stances on reproductive rights.

“We wanted to show him and his supporters that we don’t think that he would make a good president,” Berg, a junior, said. “His beliefs do not align with our beliefs, [and] we wanted to make our voices heard.”

According to Tufts Students for NARAL Secretary-Treasurer Claire Stone, a junior, the protesters included members of the Massachusetts NARAL chapter in addition to students from Tufts, Clark University and Simmons College.

Tufts Students for NARAL Communications Manager Madeleine Gene explained that protesting at the rally was an effective way to voice the group’s concerns.

“When [Trump] drove by, he waved at us and looked at us,” Gene, a junior, said.

“I was glad that he actually saw what we were doing.”

According to Stone, Trump has

Sunny 53 / 34

made several inconsiderate statements about women, and has said that he cherishes women, which is different from respecting them.

“He may think he’s honestly cherishing women, but he might mean cherish in a way that we don’t really want to be treated,” Stone said.

Stone said that Tufts Students for NARAL has yet to be formally recognized by Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate because of bylaws that require groups to have existed for at least six months prior to recognition, among other qualifications.

“Once we do that, we can really get into the swing and host events,” Stone said.

According to Berg, Tufts Students for NARAL hopes to continue spreading its message on campus through film screenings, panels, conversations and campaigning for NARAL-supported laws in order to further publicize its support of reproductive rights.

“Hopefully the Tufts community will understand where we’re coming from and support us as a whole,” Berg said.

Since NARAL is a non-partisan group, it will endorse a presidential candidate only after gathering information on all of the candidates in terms of their beliefs regarding reproductive rights, according to Berg.

However, Berg would like to see candidates take proactive approaches to addressing the issue of reproductive rights.

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Evan Sayles / The Tufts Daily

Members of NARAL, the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, protest outside a sold-out Donald Trump rally at Tyngsborough Elementary School in Tyngsborough, Mass. on Oct 16.

“I obviously think that there is more to be done,” Berg said. “A lot of times, candidates don’t address these issues because they’re hot button topics and they can be very polarizing when it comes to an individual’s beliefs.”

Gene said she is grateful for the police officers who were present at the rally for maintaining an organized and secure separation between the protesters and Trump supporters by fencing in the protesters.

“I didn’t foresee anything dangerous

Contact Us P.O. Box 53018, Medford, MA 02155 617 627 3090 FAX 617 627 3910 daily@tuftsdaily.com

happening, but it was nice to know that our right to protest was being protected and it made me feel more safe,” she said.

Berg said that although protesters were a minority at the rally, she enjoyed the experience.

“We felt that we were able to get our message across and show that we will not stand by and let him or any other candidate take away our rights,” she said.

The Trump campaign did not respond to the Daily’s request for comment.

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COMICS....................................... 7 OPINION.....................................8 Sports............................ Back

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Monday, October 26, 2015

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News News

tcu senate update

Tesser delivers State of TCU, calls for further change to university policy

by Roy Yang News Editor

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate began last night’s meeting with State of the TCU speeches delivered

by President Brian Tesser, Treasurer Shai Slotky and the Diversity and Community Affairs (DCA) Officer Anna Del Castillo.

Tesser, a senior, opened the floor by reflecting on his experiences as member of Senate, recalling some of the changes implemented by Senate since his first year at Tufts. He said that Senate should continue to create change on campus, especially regarding issues involving sexual misconduct, alcohol policy and the Late Night Dining program.

The president also addressed new challenges facing Senate — mainly, the state of housing on and off campus.

Tesser expressed concerns about a lack of support for students looking to find off campus housing, the lack of sufficient on-campus housing and the quality of the whole housing experience.

Slotky, a junior, then took the floor to give the State of the Treasury address.

He began by thanking his colleagues in the Treasury and on the Allocations Board (ALBO).

Slotky spoke about the various changes made to the Treasury Procedures Manual (TPM) for the 2015-2016 fiscal year, elaborating specifically on the controversial travel policy change. Last semester, the Senate chose to remove off-campus travel funding from its budget. Slotky asked Senate members to individually scrutinize the TPM and to think critically and deeply about the various policies.

Slotky also urged all Senate members to help out students who are confused about the intricate fiscal policies of student funding. He acknowledged the unease that some students feel about approaching Senate for supplementary funding, but said that it was important for Senate to help students, emphasizing equal chance and equal opportunity.

The third speaker, Del Castillo, a

sophomore, took the floor and began her DCA report for the 2015-2016 academic year. Del Castillo talked about the various achievements that the Tufts community has made over the past year, such as accepting undocumented students and creating gender neutral bathrooms on campus.

Del Castillo also said that there are still various issues that the university has yet to address, referencing the wage gap between certain Tufts administrators and janitors, sexual assault problems on campus and financial strife caused by the high cost of tuition.

Before moving on to the supplementary funding requests, Tesser gave quick updates about the recently formed Residential Strategies Working Group (RSWG) and the state of Late Night Dining. According to Tesser, conversations with the administration highlighted the lack of janitorial staff on duty during these nights. Students create a mess during Late Night Dining and leave it for janitors to deal with the following morning.

Tesser, who firmly supports Late Night Dining, said he hopes to move the program to a bigger venue, such as the Carmichael or Dewick-MacPhie Dining Centers.

Slotky then began the Treasury report with Baseball Analysis at Tufts (BAT), which requested supplementary funding of $1,625. The Senate decided to fund the full amount requested in a 25-0-3 vote.

Senate then passed supplementary funding of $1,257.45 to be awarded to the African Students Organization, $200 to Tufts Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), $650 to Tufts Ballroom Dance Team, $1,000 to the Pan-Afrikan Alliance, $1,460 to Urban Policy, Planning and Prosperity (UP3) and $2,227.48 to the Alliance in Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES).

After the Treasury Report, TCU Vice President Gauri Seth, a junior, ended the meeting by opening the floor for sophomore Benya Kraus, chair of ALBO’s Student Outreach Committee, who reminded the whole body of the responsibility of the senate liaison position.

MBTC to continue lobbying Tufts to use fully unionized construction firms CONSTRUCTION

continued from page 1 However, according to Feuchs, the administration has not provided a plan for minimum worker safety and treatment standards for construction projects at the university.

“In seven meetings, Tufts administration has refused to detail any minimum standards for fair pay, benefits, safety or training that they have on their campus,” Feuchs said. “This is unfair to working families and dangerous not only for construction workers, but also students, faculty and staff.”

Mobile billboard trucks from Guerrilla Mobile Billboards were seen on campus as early as Oct. 9. The trucks bore banners that displayed statistics regarding Tufts’ endowment and tuition price, Monaco’s annual salary and the costs of ongoing construction at Tufts, as well as the message: “With all this money, why is Tufts gambling on student safety?

Tufts has no minimum training or safety standards for construction workers on campus.”

Throughout Parents and Family Weekend, the truck billboards read, “Tell Tufts to stop endangering your children through unsafe construction practices.”

According to Andrew Erickson, president of Guerrilla Mobile Billboards, the mobile billboard trucks that his company provides for interested parties cost around $850 to $900 per eight consecutive hours of driving and parking time, in addition to $1,500 in production costs for the two vinyl banners.

Erickson said that labor unions, including MBTC and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), frequently use his company’s services.

Members of the MBTC have also came together at places such as the intersection of Talbot Ave. and College Ave., the intersection of Boston Ave. and College Ave. and outside the Mayer Campus Center, holding signs that read, “Tufts University undermines working families,” among other messages.

In an Aug. 5 letter to the Tufts community, Snyder wrote that around 90 percent of those employed for the

construction of the SEC building are from union-organized construction trades, and that only the electricians employed for the project are non-union.

Construction of the SEC was contracted through Turner Construction Company, a North-American based international construction services company.

“Tufts is committed to hiring contractors that can deliver high quality services that adhere to all applicable safety standards, and also meet our budget and schedule needs,” Snyder wrote in the letter. “Turner Construction Company has an outstanding safety record and is responsible for enforcing rigorous safety standards, planning and practices across all trades.”

Turner has also worked on projects such as the construction of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex and the renovation of Harvard University’s Sherman Fairchild science building, according to the Turner website. The company declined to comment on their ongoing projects at Tufts.

According to electrician John Boisclair, who was carrying a banner on College Ave. on Oct. 17, the MBTC members were protesting because Tufts was hiring private contractors who employ few union companies.

Boisclair said that the company he works for was excluded from the bidding process to do electrical work for the SEC building in spite of the fact that his company offered better prices than the nonunion subcontractors who were chosen to do the work.

His claim was disputed by Snyder, who said that the subcontractor chosen for the job offered the best value of the six that had been considered.

According to Snyder, Tufts saved approximately two million dollars on the $70 million SEC construction project by using a non-union, openshop electrician subcontractor instead of unionized electricians. In addition, the unionized electrician subcontractors in Turner’s pool had worse safety standards than non-unionized companies, she said.

According to Snyder, out of the around 85 construction projects going on across Tufts’ campuses, the “vast bulk of them use union workers.” However, she added that mixed union and nonunion labor has been employed due to the nature of contracting work at Tufts and the different projects that have been undertaken recently.

“We’ve resisted applying a one-sizefits-all policy to how construction labor is procured on the Medford/Somerville campus,” Snyder said.

Snyder explained that the Tufts administration made calculated financial decisions for the construction projects and disagreed with the MBTC’s demands for full-union employment.

“It’s just wrong to let someone else set rules that increase the cost of education,” she said.

According to Snyder, the rebuilding of the Memorial Steps also employs a non-union firm, the construction manager Your Space.

The SEC building will total 175,000 square feet and will be a “center of collaborative research, featuring high-end facilities strategically surrounded by the university’s science, math and engineering departments,” according to the Tufts website. It will open at the beginning of the 2017-2018 academic year and will have LEED Platinum energy-efficient certification.

Snyder explained that, in Tufts’ multistep hiring process for construction projects, construction managers recommend a set of subcontractors from which the university selects the companies it wishes to hire. For the electrical work required for the SEC project, three of the six companies Turner recommended employ unionized labor.

“Turner solicited bids for the electrical work from a number of qualified subcontractors, both union and open-shop,” she wrote. “The primary electrical subcontract, and several smaller specialty electrical subcontracts, is going to open-shop electricians.”

Snyder said Tufts solely employs contractors with an above-average Experience Modification Rating

— the insurance ranking system in place to review the safety practices of various companies. The non-union companies that Tufts employs all boast great safety standards based on this metric, she said.

“It would be foolish and wasteful for Tufts to only hire union workers on this campus because our standards are high, and we can meet those standards with non-union companies as well as union companies because we’re very selective,” Snyder said. “[We] do not just hire someone off the street.”

Snyder said that she wanted the university to be more explicit and rigorous about checking subcontractor safety standards. “[ We want to be] more explicit about safety standards…[by] specifically asking for rankings for firm safety to make sure that they are better than average,” she said.

Snyder said that the SEC project is being undertaken because increasing space for science on campus was one of the highest priorities for University President Anthony Monaco upon his arrival to Tufts. She cited the fact that biology is one of the university’s most popular majors.

However, Snyder also added that the university recognizes other construction needs such as those for on-campus housing, with the Board of Trustees increasing funding on deferred maintenance of campus buildings and housing.

According to Feuchs, all construction projects on Tufts’ Boston campus use solely unionized workers, a mandate that is often attributed to the strong union culture in Boston.

In a 2010 Suffolk University/7 News poll, however, 69 percent of Massachusetts residents opposed hiring only unionized workers for construction projects.

“There are more non-union workers in Massachusetts than union workers,” Snyder said.

In spite of this claim, Feuchs said that the MBTC will continue organizing to lobby Tufts to employ all-union labor.

“Our presence will continue until the issue of unfair and unsafe hiring practices are solved,” she said.

Features

Monday, October 26, 2015

3 tuftsdaily.com

Henry Jani Lexiconversation

Wanted: the Tisch phantom

W

“Welcome to the

GERM POOL” Tufts Health Service helps students affected by recent norovirus outbreak

ART BY KAVYA BOORGU

by Coral Yang

Contributing Writer

Tufts football and field hockey teams faced an unexpected challenge during preparation for this year’s Homecoming weekend. A rapid outbreak of norovirus made about 20 athletes ill, causing them to be absent from practice.

According to Tufts Health Service Medical Director Dr. Margaret Higham, the virus spread after 13 field hockey team members were infected during a trip to Wesleyan University.

Norovirus is characterized by various symptoms, including vomiting, diarrhea and sometimes headache and muscle ache. The disease is highly contagious among people in close proximity and can be acquired through ingesting food contaminated with fecal matter.

A health handout distributed to athletes by Health Service explained that many symptoms of the virus subside after 24 hours.

Most of the sick football players were cured and back on the field by the Homecoming game, according to one Tufts football player, who wished to remain anonymous. Practices ran smoothly and the team was able to complete its regular routines in preparation for its victory against Bowdoin College on Oct. 10.

According to Higham, norovirus is very common — something Health Service manages all the time.

“We had a bunch [of cases] last year, in some of the sports teams, and last spring there were a lot of students who had norovirus on campus for weeks,” Higham said.

Higham suggested that the reason the virus spread so quickly through the field hockey and football team might have something to do with the close contact among athletes.

“We don’t know for sure why that happened,” she said. “[The team was] traveling to Wesleyan for a game. It was like a day and a half later that they got sick, so we assume it was somehow on that trip — maybe from the food they bought at a restaurant, maybe from a bathroom that was on the bus. Often, people don’t know

where they get it.”

The previously mentioned football player acknowledged that team members are often in close proximity with one another, especially in the locker room. He did not believe any lack of hygiene in the lockers could be blamed for the spread of the virus, however.

“I just think it’s kind of bad luck to have this type of thing,” he said.

He added that, after the out-

“We had a bunch [of cases] last year, in some of the sports teams, and last spring there were a lot of students who had norovirus on campus for weeks.”

break, players were asked to clean their personal belongings in the lockers with anti-bacterial wipes.

Health Service also took action by distributing handouts to the athletes about the virus’ basic symptoms. It also included information about treating the virus, and recommended that students get plenty of rest, vomit into toilets instead of sinks and wash their hands regularly.

Higham explained that Health Service, which treats anywhere from 70 to 120 students a day, sees a large number of cases of contagious viruses, such as mononucleosis, pink-eye and flu, every year.

“We see a lot of cold viruses, we see a lot of fever viruses and a lot of intestinal viruses — a norovirus type of thing — on a regular basis,” she said.

Health Service offers resources, such as the annual on-campus flu clinic, to help students immunize against certain preventable diseases.

“We usually do about 3,000 [flu shots] here,” Higham said. “I figured it is about 40 percent of the

whole entire student population, maybe more considering those who take it elsewhere.”

Treatment for some types of outbreaks, however, is limited.

“Many of these diseases can’t be prevented,” Higham said. “With that H1N1 Flu a few years ago, there wasn’t a vaccine for it. So we talked to people about washing their hands, covering their coughs, we gave them the regular flu vaccine, but there wasn’t a special flu vaccine until a number of months later … A lot of prevention is the same, no matter what the illness is.”

Senior Director of Health and Wellness Services Michelle Bowdler, noted that many students outside of the field hockey and football teams were not aware of the outbreak, and explained that Health Service chose not to make a public announcement due to the fact that the outbreak mostly affected an isolated group of people.

“If you send something everyday from Health Service, people won’t know what’s important, so we really have to think carefully about how quickly we communicate and with whom in order to get the most effective response,” she said. “If there were ever a need to let people know about something immediately, we have the capacity…to let all students know immediately. With norovirus, I think it’s more localized.”

Bowdler has been collaborating with Higham for on a Health Service blog, which provides some general information about disease prevention on campus, among other types of advice.

One post, titled “Welcome to the Germ Pool,” offers tips on staying healthy during the fall — a time when many students are especially susceptible to common diseases.

Health Service has also been developing a “parents program” — introduced by Bowdler — that allows the school to network with parents to share certain health notifications more effectively.

“Ever since we’ve been doing that, our number for the flu clinic has really gone up,” Bowdler said.

ord of the day: flimflam verb\FLIM-flam\ Definition: to subject to deception or fraud On Oct. 18, my mental state finally entered into psychosis. A disturbing chain of events has led me to question various aspects of my life, and even the fabric of reality — and it all started in Tisch Library.

That afternoon, after a few hours of pretending to study while actually excessively shopping online for clothes to compensate for my various personal insecurities, I met Her gaze. Hunched over at the lobby Macs, the specter and I first crossed paths. A woman, probably in her mid 40s, with completely white face makeup, black, drawn-on eyebrows and dripping mascara, smiled at me coyly as I passed the computer lab on my way out. I denied her existence at first, like most problems in my life. I had two midterm papers and an exam that week, so I knew that paying any attention to the matter would consume any semblance of study time I had.

So I left. I couldn’t take it — mentally, physically or spiritually. I had forgotten about the ordeal by the time I returned that evening. But fate had other plans in mind. My roommate and I headed over to Tisch at approximately 9 p.m. to meet our friend, who was coincidentally also sitting in the computer area.

Following my roommate’s mesmerized gaze, I knew she had been spotted once again. She was sprawled at the same computer with a myriad of foundation tubes and liquid eyeliner circumscribing the keyboard. A box of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, from which she drank directly, sat by her feet as she painstakingly painted her nails.

A full-fledged investigation began thereafter.

We moved to an adjacent table and debriefed on our findings. Firstly, she wasn’t working alone. A nearby man, much younger than her and sporting a disappointingly bare visage, would occasionally sit next to her to cuddle. He had been watching Tufts informational videos for hours while intermixing clips of funerals and other bizarre antics. He also was constantly scribbling down notes with a system of circles and violent underlining. The woman, specifically, was reading an endlessly long, 8-sized font email with no indentations, while also jotting down words on scraps of napkin.

They made appearances everyday throughout the week. Sometimes they would sit together, other times apart. Many of my friends were now emphatically involved and became equally infatuated with what was either a heist to snipe some poor soul or ingenious performance art. Their content became increasingly disturbing with each day — security camera videos of people running out of buildings, the Tufts class schedule and even JFK’s assassination video. My friend actually managed to get into her email when she left and forgot to log off, discovering countless messages to international embassies under Russian-related aliases.

Despite our efforts to explain these antics, no one can fathom what any of this means.

I personally think they’ve deceived all of us, showcasing the process of actually becoming insane. I cried in the cafeteria about it the other night. Case in point: beware of Tisch.

Something big is brewing. And excuse me while I continue to melt in the time being.

Henry Jani is a sophomore majoring in English. He can be reached at henry.jani@ tufts.edu.

4

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Monday, October 26, 2015

ARTS&LIVING Movie Review

Superb acting elevates ‘Bridge of Spies’ “Bridge of Spies,” directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks, was released on Oct. 16. The film takes its name from the Glienicke Bridge, which stretches across Germany’s Havel River, linking the territory that was controlled by the Eastern Bloc and the Western powers during the Cold War. At that time, the bridge was used for prisoner exchanges, and because of the high number of captured spies that were ferried across it, the media dubbed it the “Bridge of Spies.”

As the name of the film suggests, “Bridge of Spies” is a Cold War drama about one of these spy exchanges. The film is based on the true story of the role of New York lawyer James B. Donovan (Hanks) in two high-profile Cold War episodes: the legal defense of Soviet spy Rudolf Ivanovich Abel (Mark Rylance) and the subsequent exchange of Abel for U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers and (on Donovan’s own initiative) American student Frederic Pryor.

Despite ostensibly dealing with global superpower relations, “Bridge of Spies” is built around a collection of outstanding individual performances rather than any driving drama derived from the mechanics of geopolitics. Hanks shines as Donovan, largely due to his ability to bring an earnest believability to the character’s legalistic idealism. In the hands of a lesser actor, Donovan’s sermons on

S

Dreamworks VIA MCT

Tom Hanks stars as lawyer James B. Donovan in Cold War drama “Bridge of Spies.” the U.S. Constitution and his spirited, ideologically-motivated defense of Abel could have come across as a mouthpiece for the writers’ idealized vision of what’s best about America. Instead, thanks to Hanks, Donovan’s speeches actually feel like things a real person, rather than a dramatic contrivance on a soap-box, might actually say.

Rylance is also fantastic as Abel, a Soviet spy. The wry witticisms he delivers in a straight-faced, deadpan manner are perhaps the highlight of the film, but unfortunately, they don’t occur as

often as one might like. His trademark inquiry of “would it help?” provides comic relief at all the right moments, as well as a welcome insight into the character’s nonchalant attitude. The rapport that Rylance andHanks’ characters develop over the course of the film is also a joy to watch but is sadly not given as much screen time as it deserves.

The supporting cast also delivers a number of stellar performances. Scott Shepherd, as CIA agent Hoffman, is consee Bridge, page 6

Album Review

Marianas Trench releases epic new album ‘Astoria’

by Josh Podolsky

Executive Arts Editor

“Astoria,” released on Oct. 23, is an adventurous and incredibly bold album

by Marianas Trench. Other introductions to this review came and went, but the preceding sentence seems like the only way to sum up the new release and do it any justice.

Four years after releasing their last studio album, “Ever After” (2011), Marianas Trench is back, and flexing some considerable musical muscle. The years between full studio albums were a mixed bag for the Vancouver, British Columbia-based group. Guitarist and lead vocalist for Marianas Trench Josh Ramsay received a Grammy nomination for co-writing Carly Rae Jepsen’s inescapable “Call Me Maybe” (2012). But on the heels of signing

a U.S. record deal in 2013, he was hospitalized for pancreatitis, saw his engagement end and found his mother’s health faltering.

Ramsay talked about getting back to music in the wake of all these developments in an Oct. 23 interview with the Toronto Sun. “I kind of had like a nervous breakdown for a while, and it was just six months of feeling awful, and then I was sitting in the hospital, feeling really dark,” Ramsay said. “I was just kind of there solo, and I kind of had this moment of clarity. “The one thing that is in my power…is getting back to writing … I came out of the hospital and went straight to the studio.”

Among the outpouring of new material were the singles “Here’s to the Zeros” (2014) and “Pop 101” (2014), which Ramsay

wrote after working on “Call Me Maybe” to demonstrate how formulaic pop music can be. But even when Marianas Trench’s music sounds conventional and poppy, their lyrical content elevates the work and makes it infinitely more entertaining.

Sardonic, biting wit and emotional honesty are this band’s hallmarks, permeating every facet of their music.

In large part, that is why “Astoria” is so shocking. A concept album through and through, “Astoria” takes listeners on a tour of the musical universe, exploring, among other genres, ’80s synthpop, Motown, movie soundtrack and orchestral music.

The album’s opening number, its title-track, somehow manages to touch on a majority of these, even incorporating vocal harmonies that would make Queen take notice.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” (1975) is perhaps the closest analogy to the song “Astoria,” although the latter, while just as diverse, explores far less bombastic musical territory than the Queen classic.

“Burning Up” follows with a far funkier bent than its predecessor, and Ramsay’s falsetto and raspiness bear more than a passing resemblance to those of the King of Pop himself. However, “Yesterday” is where the band’s signature wit first shines through. “Don’t know where you went / No object permanence / I see I looked at what it meant / And now it’s making sense,” sings Ramsay over horns and what sounds like a Güiro — far different from the guitars and drums on the majority of Marianas Trench’s previous work.

One of the most fascinating qualities of Marianas Trench’s music is how honest and profound it can be, despite the satirical wit.

Vervegirl Canada via Wikimedia Commons

Canadian band Marianas Trench deliver strong, innovative new album “Astoria.”

see Astoria, page 6

tuftsdaily.com

Natalie Girshman Bibliofiles

by John Gallagher

Assistant Arts Editor

5

The bigger the better

ometimes, there can be nothing quite so satisfying as a really long book. The plot unspools at a leisurely pace, the characters reveal themselves piece by piece, the setting comes to life in all its detail. The reader gathers their patience, makes themself a hot drink and settles in for an afternoon or 10 of reading. Here are three novels — all over five hundred pages and each of a different genre — that will reward every bit of your time and patience twice over.

“The Secret History” (1992) by Donna Tartt recounts what happens when Richard Papen, a misfit Californian, arrives at a small liberal arts school in New England and falls in with a group of charmingly eccentric classics major students — and under the spell of their charismatic professor. Tartt is perhaps best known for “The Goldfinch” (2013), which won the Pulitzer in 2014 and once occupied a good quarter of my luggage on vacation. But where “The Goldfinch” occasionally veers into hundred-page long digressions on the peculiar bonds formed by feckless teenage boys, “The Secret History” inexorably speeds toward its bloody conclusion. It’s a book about deeply flawed, occasionally nasty, people doing deeply nasty things, and it’s absolutely riveting.

Underneath all their flaws, there’s something sympathetic about the characters — some spark of hope that they might be saved — and it’s all the more devastating when they lose any chance at redemption.

“The Luminaries” (2013) by Eleanor Catton is one of those books that left me extremely impressed and slightly envious.

It takes place in 1866 in the gold mines of New Zealand, where a hermit has died, a young prostitute has tried to kill herself, a fortune is free for the taking and a group of 12 men is trying to make sense of it all.

The plot is marvelously intricate, as each puzzle piece is neatly slotted into place.

The characters are rich and distinctive and the world-building puts most historical fiction to shame. Catton brings the world of the goldfields to life with every careful detail and makes a distant world seem as real and alive as our modern one in a way that is sometimes striking.

Finally, Susanna Clarke’s “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell” (2004) is both the longest and perhaps the most ambitious of these three. It imagines an alternate England, with a history filled with magicians, that is about to be turned upside down by the revelation that magic has returned to the country. The world of this book is both unquestionably English and unquestionably magical, as Clarke develops an entire alternate magical history. She incorporates everything from English mythical figures to the events of the Napoleonic Wars, which she occasionally elaborates on in delightfully quirky footnotes. “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell” may be a little difficult at first; it takes a while for the the reader to become accustomed to the old-fashioned writing style and initially slow plot. However, as the novel progresses, the writing style reveals itself as perfectly suited to the story, the plot builds and builds in twists and turns and every readerly need — whether it’s emotional scenes, character development or simply a dazzling display of magic — is satisfied.

Natalie Girshman is a senior majoring in History. She can be reached at natalie. girshman@tufts.edu.

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Living | Monday, October 26, 2015

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A&L

ARTS&LIVING

Spielberg creates convincing, but not flawless, period drama Bridge

continued from page 5 vincingly exasperated by Donovan’s principles and antics, while Amy Ryan’s rendition of Donovan’s long-suffering wife, Mary McKenna Donovan, is also notable.

Given the events it chronicles, “Bridge of Spies” is a period drama by default and, fortunately, the film delivers a gorgeous rendering of the late 1950s and early 1960s. All of the main characters are extremely well-dressed, sporting outfits and accessories endowed with the mid-century swank that “Mad Men” (2007-2015) so famously catapulted into contemporary consciousness. The streets of New York are also lined with the mostly

black cars of the era, and bleak exterior shots of East Berlin depict the city as a starving, freezing ruin. Cold War military hardware is also on display, treating audiences to a dissection of the U2 spy plane’s camera system. Because of this meticulous attention to detail in all aspects of its visual presentation, “Bridge of Spies” manages to firmly inhabit the period in which it is set.

Though by and large a cinematic achievement, “Bridge of Spies” is not without its flaws. Courtroom scenes showing Donovan’s defense of Abel are somewhat thin on the ground, as the film focuses instead on the difficulties he faced outside of the courtroom, such

as a drive-by shooting that targeted his home. It would have been interesting to see more legal sparring between Donovan and the prosecution as he struggled to defend his client in a profoundly anti-communist environment.

The ending of “Bridge of Spies” verges on cliché: one of the film’s final scenes shows Donovan returning home from Germany after successfully negotiating the release of Powers and Pryor.

Exhausted, Donovan walks upstairs after greeting his wife and children and immediately falls asleep in his own bed — something he has talked about doing at length throughout the film. A TV newscaster then conveniently announc-

es the freeing of Powers and Pryor, as well as Donovan’s role in securing their release, to his unsuspecting family, who believed he had been on a fishing trip.

Upon hearing the news, Donovan’s wife proceeds upstairs and gazes at him with adoring awe while he sleeps. Meanwhile, the soundtrack swells emotionally in the background.

These shortcomings are minor, however, and do little to hinder the overall brilliant execution of “Bridge of Spies.”

The film comes off as a well-realized drama, and benefits from superb performances across its cast. Hearing Abel ask “would it help?” at just the right time is worth the price of admission alone.

‘Astoria’ triumphs as showcase of musical talent Astoria

continued from page 5 “Dearly Departed” features Ramsay’s voice accompanied by a staccato ukulele and long flowing strings in the background.

The juxtaposition of the quippy ukulele with the running strings is an experience in itself, but the effect they have on the vocals (especially once the band’s other members start layering in their own voices) should not be undersold.

Interludes help shuttle listeners through the album’s diverse content, each beautiful enough to catch an absent listener’s attention while also gearing them up for the following song. The appropriately named “Hollywood Renaissance” sounds like something off of an epic blockbuster’s soundtrack, with horns, strings and operatic singing in the background. Somehow, it flows easily into the next song, “Shut Up and Kiss Me,” which

sounds like it was transported straight out of Motown’s heyday. It’s like one of those food combinations, like grilled cheese and jam, that shouldn’t go well together but somehow does.

“End of an Era” wraps up the album. The track features Ramsay’s immediate family, including his mother, a vocal teacher, who sing along with him for parts of the song.

Their harmonies are haunting — the song is incredibly theatrical, making the brief

reference to Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” all the more appropriate.

Furthermore, the singing in the middle of the song — at a part that sounds like a far off echo — is a reference to “Ever After,” where that ditty was a recurring feature.

There isn’t a single song out of place on “Astoria.” This album should be listened to from start to end, and when the final song fades out, listeners will realize just how far the album has taken them.

Album Review

Demi Lovato struggles to forge own path on ‘Confident’

by Justin Krakoff Arts Editor

Transitioning from teenage wonder to full-fledged pop star is a difficult enough challenge for any young artist seeking to parlay their early success into a real adult career. But having to do so while battling their demons on a public stage? That is a completely different story.

Demi Lovato’s time as a Disney star came to an abrupt end in 2010 when she checked herself into rehab to battle mental illness, addiction and bulimia. Lovato was only 18 when her struggles became tabloid fodder, and the next few years would see her musical career in a state of transition, as she released two solid albums — 2011’s “Unbroken” and 2013’s “Demi” — that ever-so-carefully straddled the line between adolescence and maturity.

In the run-up to the Oct. 16 release of her fifth album “Confident,” Lovato announced to the world that she was done with “the sob stories,” insisting that, now, she just wants to have fun. Chockfull of anthems, “Confident” has a strong “go big or go home” attitude, which caters to whatever mood the listener is in. The problem with this approach, however, is that oftentimes “Confident” fails to deliver on the musical front.

The steamy “Cool for the Summer” kicked off Lovato’s reinvention as a pop diva and stands out as one of the best pop songs of 2015. Featuring a thrilling production from legendary producer Max Martin, the ode to Sapphic love teases the audience with a light piano introduction before launching into a monster explosion of synths and ooh-oohs, leaving the listener in a state of complete pop euphoria. The album’s title track — and the second Martin-produced jam — continues this pop explosion, with Lovato singing “What’s wrong with being confident?” amidst an addictive blend of rock ‘n’ roll and hip-hop sounds.

The rest of “Confident” is a curious body of work, and Lovato seemingly gets lost in

chasing radio trends instead of crafting her own sound. No less than three of the album’s tracks — “Old Ways,” “Kingdom Come” and “Waitin For You” — feature trap-like breakdowns à la Katy Perry’s monster hit “Dark Horse” (2013). Though “Kingdom Come” and “Waitin For You” feature off-kilter verses from female rappers Iggy Azalea and Sirah, respectively, the guest artists fail to rescue either song from mediocrity.

Oversinging is also a consistent problem throughout “Confident;” Lovato tries too hard to show the power of her voice.

On tracks like “Father,” her tendency to belt at the end of the track ruins an otherwise emotionally potent moment in which Lovato struggles to come to grips with the death of her estranged father.

When Lovato gets it right, however, the results are beyond emotionally devastating. “Stone Cold” is perhaps the album’s true highlight, as Lovato bares her soul on the powerful ballad, telling her former lover “If happy is her, I’m happy for you.”

While she occasionally veers too close to oversinging on the track, Lovato’s raw performance arguably puts forth her most convincing case for post-Disney stardom.

Speaking of other former Disney stars, there is an easy comparison to make between this album and Selena Gomez’s newly released “Revival,” on which she, too, embarks upon emancipation from her teenage past.

While Gomez and Lovato have both worked to move on from their Disney careers, “Revival” and “Confident” take different paths on the road to adulthood: the former gracefully eases into this new role while the latter announces its arrival with gusto. Gomez, it seems, is more willing to experiment, borrowing from a variety of sounds to create innovative pop music. Lovato, on the other hand, sounds content to work with standard top 40 tricks.

The ultimate problem with “Confident” is that the album simply fails to elevate itself amidst comparable works from other pop stars.

Even though it is full of personality, “Confident” lacks the necessary sonic

inspiration to truly set itself apart from the crowded industry.

Despite these flaws, Lovato successfully recasts herself in a new light as a pop diva.

However, with the new territory comes a greater challenge. Lovato must now bring her A-game if she is to survive in the top echelon of the pop music industry.

Focka via Flickr Creative Commons

Demi Lovato attempts to create a Disney-independent image with her latest album.

7

Monday, October 26, 2015 | Comics | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Comics

Late Night at the Daily Lancy: FOR “If you digest in my face,26,I’ll2015 be pretty upset.”

RELEASE OCTOBER

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ACROSS 1 Singapore’s continent 5 Arches National Park state 9 Spread out, as one’s fingers 14 Amorphous mass 15 By way of, briefly 16 Leave no doubt about 17 Name as a source 18 Club often used for chipping 19 Procedures to learn, informally, with “the” 20 Carbonated beverage 23 Track section 24 Assent to a captain 25 Bright, photogenic grin 31 Boat not to rock 32 Miler Sebastian 33 Grazing area 34 Charged toward 35 Fairy tale home builder 36 Note equivalent to E 38 Catering dispenser 39 Galoot 40 Online finance company 41 Excellent yearend review, say 45 Tiny farm denizen 46 Ripped up 47 Epitome 54 Italian violin maker 55 Cross inscription 56 Bar from a dairy case 57 Slow-witted one 58 Walking stick 59 Actor Penn of “Mystic River” 60 Getting on in years 61 Fleecy farm females 62 Repertoire requirement for a military bugler

10/26/15

By Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke

DOWN 1 Preschool lessons 2 Lose traction 3 Greek “i” 4 Deviating from the norm 5 Employ 6 Roller coaster excitement 7 Elvis __ Presley 8 Suspended on the wall 9 Wets with a hose 10 President __: Senate bigwig 11 More than trot 12 State firmly 13 “You bet!”

21 Hummed-into instrument 22 “Living” compensation 25 “Hawaii Five-O” nickname 26 More standoffish 27 Spiked yuletide beverage 28 __ ease: anxious 29 Tilt to one side 30 Have a bite 31 Astronomer Sagan

Friday’sPuzzle Solution Saturday’s Solved

©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

34 Persian on the living room floor 35 NBA scoring stat 36 Horticulturist’s study 37 First and __: most important 39 Objector 40 Model kit glues 42 Serve, as diner patrons 43 Baseball game ninth

10/26/15

44 Without end, in poetry 47 Skyline haze 48 Big name in spydom 49 “__ going!”: “Good job!”

50 Work on a bone 51 Intense request 52 Jump 53 Very long time 54 Org. with many specialists

THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME

by David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek

JUMBLE

SUDOKU

BIHAT ©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC All Rights Reserved.

KRIHE ACCELK

TOLBET

Check out the new, free JUST JUMBLE app

Unscramble these four Jumbles, one letter to each square, to form four ordinary words.

Now arrange the circled letters to form the surprise answer, as suggested by the above cartoon.

Print your answer here: Difficulty Level: Carving a pumpkin like this:

Saturday’s

(Answers tomorrow) Jumbles: ABIDE HEFTY EMBLEM DISMAL Answer: When it came to buying weather stripping, the fact that it was on sale — SEALED THE DEAL

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classifieds policy All Tufts students must submit classifieds in person, prepaid with check, money order or exact cash only. All classifieds submitted by mail must be accompanied by a check. Classifieds are $20 per week or $4 per day with Tufts ID or $30 per week or $8 per day without. The Tufts Daily is not liable for any damages due to typographical errors or misprintings except the cost of the insertion, which is fully refundable. We reserve the right to refuse to print any classifieds which contain obscenity, are of an overly sexual nature or are used expressly to denigrate a person or group. Questions? Email business@tuftsdaily.com.

8

THE TUFTS DAILY | Opinion | Monday, October 26, 2015

T HE T UFTS D AILY Joe Palandrani Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL Lancy Downs Abigail Feldman Managing Editors Sarah Zheng Executive News Editor Marianna Athanassiou News Editors Melissa Kain Reena Karasin Arin Kerstein Safiya Nanji Sophie Lehrenbaum Emma Steiner Annabelle Roberts Roy Yang Isha Fahad Assistant News Editors Miranda Willson Mengqi Sun Executive Features Editor Kendall Todd Features Editors Arin Kerstein Nicole Brooks Becca Leibowitz Nina Joung Assistant Features Editors Joshua Podolsky Executive Arts Editor Anjali Nair Arts Editors Yotam Bentov Assistant Arts Editors Merilla Michael John Gallagher Ascher Kulich Yuki Zaninovich Nick Golden Erin Sifre Katie Matejcak Hannah Hoang Ty Enos Fury Sheron Natasha Khwaja Nick Golden

Executive Op-Ed Editor Op-Ed Editor

Cartoonists Editorialist

tuftsdaily.com

Opinion Opinion

EDITORIAL

In spite of anonymity, accountability must be maintained in Yik Yak exchanges When Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington created Yik Yak, they did so with the intention of voicing the opinions of the disenfranchised and the unrepresented. Yik Yak’s anonymity, theoretically, allows for a more unfettered kind of free speech in which fear of being ostracized need not be considered when speaking up. But with anonymity comes a lack of accountability, as the same protection from judgment can facilitate harassment, hate speech and generally uncritical commentary as easily as thoughtful humor and provocative ideas.

Much of the banter of Tufts’ Yik Yak feed is made up of innocuous meditations on conditions or scenarios common to many members of the Tufts community; EC 5, the dining halls and the social scene are a few examples of frequent yak subjects. Some popular posts are terse one-liners, while others share long stories. In some cases, the comfort afforded by anonymity even allows spontaneous and

Alison Kuah Executive Sports Editor Ross Dember Sports Editors Alex Schroeder Chris Warren Steven Hefter Phillip Goldberg Ray-Paul Biron Josh Slavin Evan Sayles Executive Photo Editor Sofie Hecht Photo Administrator Caroline Ambros Picture Tufts Editor

contingent support systems to materialize, functioning within the same premises as services like Ears for Peers. However, while Yik Yak may make such positive interactions possible, it does not guarantee the exclusion of harmful posts as well.

For some, anonymity can be an empowering shield through which they can educate peers in ways that would not be comfortable or possible for them in person, rendering the community-based approach to monitoring discourse effective as a way of fostering a fair space for sharing ideas.

While the responsibility for this kind of scrutiny is concentrated with a small number of curators and editors in anonymous outlets for expression like Tufts Confessions or the Public Journal, it is fully democratized in spaces like Yik Yak. As a result, uncritical or offensive yaks in the Tufts feed will often fall subject to heavy criticism.

However, policing Yik Yak can also result in a doubling-down of the ugliest

aspects of the status quo. David A. Banks, a scholar of technology and society, writes that “[n]orms, whether they are desirable or undesirable, are rewarded by [Yik Yak’s] voting mechanism.” Yik Yak’s distribution of accountability always leaves open the possibility for a challenging idea to be censored while a popular idea gets amplified, regardless of which one has more potential to meaningfully stimulate the community.

As an editorial in the Middlebury Campus argued compellingly last October, it is the responsibility of all users of a platform to make it function in the fairest way possible. While inventors like Droll and Buffington may earnestly intend to design platforms with particular goals in mind — in this case, the goal to create an objectively meritocratic forum for free expression — such spaces can never operate as planned without a concerted effort from those who occupy it.

EDITORIAL CARTOON

BY ISSY DEL PRIORE

Merilla Michael Executive Jumbo Beat Editors Rachel Allen

PRODUCTION Andrew M. Stephens Production Director David Westby Executive Layout Editors Nick Golden Julie Doten Layout Editors Molly Harrower Allie Merola Annabelle Roberts Emily Sharp Natasha Statz-Geary Sebastian Torrente Astrid Weng Shirley Wang Creative Director Alison Epstein Executive Copy Editors Sophie Lehrenbaum Iqra Asghar Copy Editors Arthur Beckel Aastha Chadha Melissa Feito Noah Habeeb Jonathan Heutmaker Andrew Kager Melissa Kain Reena Karasin Serena Kassam Claire Mullany Rachel Salzberg Dan Strauss Caroline Watson Kayla Williamson Assistant Copy Editors Sarah Kalinowski Paolo Scalla Nitesh Gupta Executive Online Editor Max Bernstein Executive Tech Manager

BUSINESS Kristie Le Executive Business Director Chris Chininis Yiran Xu Daphne Zhao Josh Morris

Ad Director Receivables Manager Ad Manager Ad Manager

Caroline Talbert Marketing Director Qinyue Yu Marketing Manager Scott Geldzahler Social Media Editor Vera Masterson

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community. EDITORIAL POLICY Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.

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Monday, October 26, 2015 | Opinion | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Opinion

9

Opinion

OP-ED

Open letter to Professor Jerry Meldon and the Tufts Faculty Progressive Caucus

by Joel Wasserman To Professor Jerry Meldon and the Tufts Faculty Progressive Caucus: It has come to my attention that your organization hosted an event on Oct. 21 called “Mainstream U.S. Media Coverage of Events in Ukraine and Syria: The Power of False Narrative.”

I am writing to express my serious disappointment. As a member of the 20142015 EPIIC colloquium on Russia in the 21st Century, as someone who has made Russia and Russian participation in international affairs the prime passion and academic focus of his life for years, and as someone who has been closely following the events unfolding in the past 23 months in Ukraine — from the beginning of the protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti in November 2013 to the Russian Anschluss of Crimea to the Russian invasion and occupation of the Donbass region — I can testify with strong authority that Mr. Parry’s commentary on the Ukraine crisis and Russian involvement in the world is nonsensical, non-factual, misleading and unbecoming of a serious journalist. I was very upset to learn that your organiza-

tion, which has hosted such respectable and distinguished speakers as Dr. Cornel West and Mr. Noam Chomsky in discussions on which they have established and respected authority, is granting Mr. Parry a platform explicitly on this topic to hawk his obfuscations and factually bankrupt, self-congratulating, delusional ramblings with the airs of legitimacy offered by the crest of Tufts University.

Mr. Parry is fully entitled to free speech, publication and expression. He exercises them regularly on his own website, ConsortiumNews, as well as on his multiple appearances as an “expert” on the notorious English-language mouthpiece of Vladimir Putin’s information ministries, Russia Today. He is not entitled to do so at Alumnae Hall. Mr. Parry is entitled to his own opinions, but as Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Linus Linkevicius, remarked in September in reference to Russia’s war of misinformation across Europe and the former Soviet Union, “A lie is not an alternative point of view.”

Tufts has its very own expert on the revolution and subsequent crises in Ukraine in Oxana Shevel, associate professor in the Department of

Political Science. Professor Shevel has spent much of the past two years on the ground in Ukraine covering the country’s social, political, geopolitical and human stories. If you and your organization are unable to end your speaking engagement with Mr. Parry, I suggest that you extend an invitation to Professor Shevel to give a response lecture at a later point in time. I make this suggestion without Professor Shevel’s knowledge and can make no representations about her schedule or availability. Moreover, I do not wish to volunteer her for something she has not signed up for, as Putin has done repeatedly with young men in the Russian military in the past 18 months. However, I can think of no other person in the Tufts community more qualified to speak with authority on the issues that Mr. Parry has endeavored to misrepresent.

Sincerely, Joel Wasserman Joel Wasserman is a Tufts alumnus who graduated in 2015. He can be reached at Joel.Wasserman@tufts.edu.

Aren Torikian The Arena

Paul, Joe and the Tru North Let’s start this busy week with Paul Ryan. If

Mitt Romney had won the 2012 election, Ryan would be sitting pretty as vice president. He’d have the choice of eventually running for the office, retiring to his Wisconsin home or heading back to Congress. Instead, Mr. Ryan is the new presumptive Speaker of the House. I’m convinced the gig is the single least attractive job in Washington, and maybe even the world.

The House is always more sensitive to short-term sways in opinion, as its members are elected (or re-elected) every two years.

And the Republican Party, as loyal readers of “The Arena” will remember, is ideologically split down the middle. The furthest right Republicans, naturally named the Freedom Caucus, already forced out Speaker John Boehner and blocked majority leader Kevin McCarthy from the position. They branded Ryan, who in 2012 Democrats attacked as too conservative, as soft. The groups reached an agreement, and Ryan will probably be confirmed around the time you are reading this.

Oh, to be a politician. The new speaker will have to find a way to keep his party united as it prepares to take on Democrats on issues like the debt ceiling and highway infrastructure funding.

Across the aisle on the Democratic side, Joe Biden decided he would not run for the nomination. Hillary Clinton’s continued to solidify her lead during the recent debate made it difficult for any Biden bid to take hold. In terms of easy victories, Clinton’s bid for the nomination rivals only whoever is playing the New York Knicks. I’ve touched on this in previous columns, but the lack of, well, democracy, in the Democratic Party is shocking.

Remember, this is the same party that nominated a complete outsider in Barack Obama just seven years ago, and once nominated a no-name governor named Bill Clinton.

On a happier note, “The Arena” would like to send its warmest wishes to Canada’s newest prime minister. With his party’s victory in last week’s elections, Justin Trudeau will become Canada’s second most-famous Justin, ahead of 2006 American League MVP Justin Morneau, but behind the Biebs.

Not unlike the primaries on this side of the border, Canadians wanted a fresh voice in Ottawa. Trudeau himself is dashing, 43 and worked as a schoolteacher. That being said, he isn’t completely new to the political scene.

His dad just happened to be Pierre Trudeau, prime minister of Canada for nearly 16 years, and the namesake for Montreal’s airport. At a state visit, Richard Nixon actually raised his glass to four-month-old Justin Trudeau and proclaimed him future prime minister.

Running on a platform supporting deficit spending to boost the Canadian economy and the legalization of marijuana, Trudeau’s Liberals ousted/oil baron Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party. The Conservative regime had withdrawn Canada from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and invested heavily in the fossil fuel industry, particularly in Mr. Harper’s home province, Alberta.

One Canadian news source called the 78-day campaign for prime minister a “grueling” one. Here in the United States, there are (still) exactly 379 days until the presidential election. Prime Minister Trudeau will have had a year in office.

Aren Torikian is a sophomore who has yet to declare a major. Aren can be reached at aren.torikian@tufts.edu.

OP-ED POLICY The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length. Op-Ed cartoons are also welcomed for the Campus Canvas feature. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. All material should be submitted to oped@tuftsdaily.com no later than noon on the day prior to the desired day of publication; authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions. Submissions may not be published elsewhere prior to their appearance in the Daily, including but not limited to other on- and off-campus newspapers, magazines, blogs and online news websites, as well as Facebook. Republishing of the same piece in a different source is permissible as long as the Daily is credited with originally running the article.

10

THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Monday, October 26, 2015

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I’VE NEVER UNDERSTOOD WHY MY HUMAN WON’T LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT HER LEASH. I THINK SHE’S AFRAlD OF GETTING LOST. BUT IT’S OK, I KIND OF LIKE SHOWING HER AROUND. — HARPER adopted 08-18-09

Monday, October 26, 2015 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Sports

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Sports

Tufts moves to 3-0 away record with win at Williams FOOTBALL

continued from back year out.”

Junior running back Chance Brady led the charge on offense, with 162 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Through five games, Brady leads the NESCAC with 116.6 rushing yards per game and is tied with Trinity first-year Max Chipouras for the NESCAC lead in rushing touchdowns with eight apiece.

In contrast, the Ephs abandoned the run game early after finding little success on the ground. They rushed 17 times for 35 yards as opposed to the Jumbos’ 49 attempts for 250 yards. Williams, however, nearly doubled Tufts’ passing yardage total, 363-185.

Brady earned Tufts’ first two touchdowns of the day. The first came early in the first quarter on a 21-yard run up the middle.

Brady broke two arm tackles at the line of scrimmage, spun around a linebacker and ran untouched the rest of the way to the end zone. His second, in the second quarter, was a one-yard dive up the middle set up when junior quarterback Alex Snyder, while getting hit, threw a 19-yard pass to senior wide receiver Jack Cooleen. Earlier in the drive, sophomore quarterback Mike McLaughlin took a snap out of shotgun and kept the ball for a nine-yard gain to the right.

With 10 minutes left in the second quarter, Williams’ senior quarterback Austin Lommen connected with senior wide receiver Darrias Sime, who is listed at a towering 6-foot-4-inches, four times for a total of 53-yards and earned a first-and-1 on Tufts’ goal line. The final reception was a 21-yard lob to the mountainous Sime over first-year Tim Preston, the six-foot tall reigning NESCAC player of the week. Tufts senior defensive lineman Ife Adebayo stuffed Williams junior running back Thomas Cifrino on first down. Tufts junior Patrick Williams and sophomore defensive back J.P. Garcia prevented Cifrino from crossing the plane on second down. Lommen’s third down pass was incomplete, and after a timeout, Williams decided to go for it on fourth-and-1. Lommen rolled right, scanning the field as defensive lineman chased him down but could not find an open man.

He made it all the way to the right sideline before forcing a bad pass to junior tight-end John Dillon and the Jumbos took over at their own 1.

With 17 seconds remaining in the first half, Williams’ sophomore running back Connor Harris returned the punt from junior punter Willie Holmquist 33 yards all the way to Tufts’ 28 yard-line. Harris’ return, made possible by strong blocking, was especially impressive for the speed he displayed and his willingness to run north-south. However, the Ephs were unable to advance the ball past the Jumbos’ 21 and settled for a field goal attempt with one second remaining. Williams called timeout before sophomore kicker Bobby Webster lined up to take the kick.

Then, Civetti called a timeout to ice the kicker and force him to line up again. A common strategy, Civetti added his own personal wrinkle and drew boos from the home crowd by repeating the process a second time with another timeout. Although two timeouts to ice a kicker is unorthodox, Civetti’s strategy worked well, as Tufts firstyear defensive back Alexander LaPiana was able to block the kick.

“They had some serious yardage,” Civetti said. “Our defense bends, but it doesn’t break. I think we were pretty good at the point of attack, getting hands on and rerouting guys. Certainly we gave up some things on the outside, but that was by design. We feel like we can cover those guys on the outside. [Senior] Alex Way, the big tight end that

they have — he’s a pretty impressive guy on the inside, and certainly one of our focal points was to limit his touches.”

Williams entered halftime losing 13-0, but coach Aaron Kelton clearly motivated his team during the break, as the Ephs broke open their first scoring drive of the game early in the third. On a fake counter run play, both of Tufts’ safeties bit on the run and allowed senior quarterback Mark Pomella to get open 40 yards downfield in the end zone, bringing the score to 13-7 after William’s PAT. Another Tufts drive ended with junior kicker Willie Holmquist’s field goal from 37 yards away to put Tufts ahead 16-7. The drive was comprised mostly of two long passes, one to Brady for 21 yards and another to senior tight end Xavier Frey for 25 yards.

Less than a minute later, senior defensive back Patrick Williams intercepted Lommen on a high throw to the right. Lommen had barely escaped being sacked on the play, and a defensive lineman grabbed at his ankles as he made the throw.

The interception set Tufts up in Williams territory, and after Brady rushed three times for 10 yards, the Jumbos turned to junior wide receiver Mike Rando. Rando took a sweeping path to the left and sped up the sideline for a 17-yard gain, narrowly missing the end zone after being pushed out of bounds at the 1. A false start set the Jumbos back to the 6 but Snyder fired a bullet to the back of the end zone that Rando caught practically rolling on the ground. It was Rando’s first career touchdown and brought the score to 23-7 Tufts.

“It was a good moment to get in [the end zone], for sure,” Rando said. “Finally. There will be plenty more to come. [I] just had to break the seal there.”

Another Tufts drive at 2:22 in the third quarter started with excellent field position on Tufts’ 41-yard line thanks to a 13-yard return by Rando, and featured first-year running back Dominic Borelli zipping around to the outside for gains of seven and eight yards on the first two plays. Next Snyder hit peer wide receiver Ben Berey, who led Tufts in the game with five receptions for 50 yards. Brady trucked through a gap in the defense for a 17-yard gain and Snyder threw a perfect ball to Berey who was tightly covered along the right sideline. Berey was forced down at the 1-yard line after a 24-yard gain. Snyder then ran untouched through a sizable gap that the offensive line opened and scored the touchdown to put Tufts up 30-7 after the first play of the fourth quarter.

“We pride ourselves on being the most physical team in the NESCAC, and we really believe that,” sophomore defensive end Zach Thomas said. “If a team wants to establish the run, [our goal is to] shut that down and force them to pass and that allows us to go into pass-rush mode and rush the quarterback.”

The very next play, Williams marched from their own 20 and set up a first-andgoal at the Tufts 8. Lommen lobbed a ball up to Sime for a touchdown. Lommen was able to hook up with senior wide receiver Colin Brown at the front of the end zone for the two-point conversion, bringing Williams within reasonable striking distance at 30-15.

Yet with 3:17 remaining in the game and a two possession lead (30-15), Tufts dropped back into coverage and only rushed three defensive linemen. Thomas, however, still managed to sack Lommen for a loss of eight yards. The sack forced a Williams timeout, helped kill the drive and all but sealed the game for the Jumbos.

“Usually if we have a multiple score lead, you know the other team is going to want

Zach Ohara The Best Kept Secret

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Evan Sayles / TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

After catching an interception, Tufts sophomore DB J.P. Garcia runs back towards the Trinity end zone on Oct. 17. to pass the ball and that helps [me] out because [I] can get a jump on the tackles,” Thomas said. “You want to put the nail in the coffin, you don’t want to give them any life. It goes back to wanting to be the best on every play, whether you are up or whether you are down.”

Thomas leads the NESCAC with 5.5 sacks on the season and sophomore teammate Micah Adickes is second with 4.5.

Despite dominating for much of the game, Tufts was called for 15 penalties, which gifted Williams 141 yards. The officials called a tight game, and the Ephs were also penalized seven times for 75 yards.

The Jumbos are now 3-0 while away this season, a clear contrast from last year’s 0-4 away record.

“Home or away, I think a lot of what it says is, our guys are very good at focusing in and at doing their job regardless of the uncontrollable events that are around them,” Civetti said. “Like I said to the guys earlier in the week, ‘You can’t control that the game is on the road. You can’t control what the weather is like. You can’t control what calls they are going to make [or] what the officials are going to say.’ We spend a lot of time just as a whole talking about what you can control, and that’s your response to those events: how do we show up, how do we travel, what’s our focus, how do we mentally prepare ourselves. Those are more the areas that I will commend the guys on doing a positive job.”

Tufts takes on 5-0 Amherst at home next weekend in a game that could potentially determine the NESCAC championship.

Trinity is the only other 5-0 team and has yet to play Amherst.

“Last year, everyone just really really wanted to get a win — and we did — and it was amazing,” Brady said. “It’s one of the best memories I’ve ever had. This year our focus is different. We want to compete for a championship. That’s what’s on every guy’s mind when staring at the standings. We have guys that just won’t lose at anything.”

The Lamar Odom saga

ormer Sixth Man of the Year and NBA champion Lamar Odom was recently found unconscious at a brothel in Nevada on Oct. 13. After overdosing on cocaine, he was rushed to a hospital, where he was deemed to be in critical condition.

Since then, Odom has begun to recover and appears to be making significant strides in his health. Sometimes, people wonder how someone as successful as Odom could fall so far from his glory days of winning a ring with Kobe Bryant, but a closer look at his life he might offer some insight.

In his prime, Odom was a key piece in the Los Angeles Lakers’ back-to-back championship runs in 2009 and 2010.

His success was recognized in 2011, when he won the Sixth Man of the Year Award. Odom was also one of the most unique basketball players because of his incredible length and ball handling skills. He would regularly come off the bench to lead the Lakers in rebounds while still being able to facilitate their offense as a ball handler.

When Odom was in critical condition in the Nevada hospital, we heard countless stories from teammates about their immense respect for him.

Although Odom often got a bad rap with fans for his antics off the court, no one would dispute that he was an incredible teammate. But his professional basketball career was an easy distraction from his issues off the court, a luxury he no longer enjoyed when his basketball-playing days were over.

Ever since his childhood, Odom has had a difficult life. His mother passed away when he was 12, and his father, a drug addict, was not a constant figure in his life. He has also struggled with the 2006 death of his infant son, drug problems of his own and the added emotional baggage of being a passenger in a vehicle that killed a 15-yearold boy. He somehow found a way to be a positive figure for others in the face of these personal struggles and was able to craft out an incredibly successful career in the NBA for himself.

Scott Van Pelt, an ESPN sportscaster, issued a very moving statement a couple of days after Odom had been found unconscious and hospitalized. In his Oct. 14 broadcast of “Sportscenter” (1979 – present), Van Pelt proceeded to chew out everyone who was criticizing Odom and his actions, including those who called him a reality TV star.

In what, to me, will be an iconic statement surrounding the Lamar Odom saga, Van Pelt said: “I understand not everyone watches sports, but ‘Kardashian reality star?’ His name is Lamar Odom, and we knew it long before he got married on a TV show we don’t watch.”

Zach Ohara is a junior majoring in economics. He can be reached at zachary. ohara@tufts.edu.

Sports

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Monday, October 26, 2015

FOOTBALL

JUMBOS BEAT EPHS

Tufts wins at Williams for first time since 1981

by Phillip Goldberg Sports Editor

Tufts’ 30-15 road victory over Williams on Saturday was more than just another win for the Jumbos. It was the team’s

FOOTBALL (4-1 Overall, 4-1 NESCAC) at Williamstown, Mass., Saturday Tufts Williams

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first win in Williamstown since 1981, and it came in dominant fashion, with Tufts taking a 23-point lead for part of the game.

The victory ties the Jumbos’ win total from last season at four. Now sitting at 4-1, Tufts’ NESCAC championship hopes are still alive, with only Amherst and Trinity left as the two undefeated teams in the conference.

Williams, dropping to 2-3, faces a potential repeat of last season’s 2-6 record.

“It’s a place that I think we should be,” coach Jay Civetti said. “It’s nice to be at a place where you’re having the success that you expect out of your program, your players, your coaching staff and yourself. I expect us to be a winning program that is competing for championships year in and see FOOTBALL, page 11

Evan Sayles / TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Tufts junior quarterback Alex Snyder passes the ball in the game against Trinity on Oct. 17.

Men’s soccer

Jumbos on two-game win streak as regular season winds down

by Steven Hefter Sports Editor

The men’s soccer team began the final stretch of the regular season this past week with two road games. On Tuesday, the team

MEN’S SOCCER (9-3-2 Overall, 5-2-2 NESCAC) at Williamstown, Mass., Saturday Tufts Williams

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traveled to Keene, N.H. to take on Keene State before heading west to Williamstown on Saturday for a NESCAC game against Williams.

The team emerged from the week 2-0 and is back on a winning track after playing to a draw against Bates the previous weekend.

The 3-0 win against Williams had postseason benefits for Tufts. With the victory, the team ensures a top-four NESCAC finish in the regular season and thus a home game for the NESCAC quarterfinals this weekend. Despite being outshot 10 to seven by the Ephs, the Jumbos were able to beat junior Williams goalie Christian Alcorn three times on only four shots on goal.

The opportunistic Tufts offense was led by junior forward Nathan Majumder, who scored his eighth and ninth goals of the season. This makes Majumder the second highest scorer in the conference this season behind Amherst’s Nico Pascual-Leone, a junior, who has tallied 11 goals. Majumder’s first goal came on a penalty kick in the 21st minute, and the teams entered the halftime locker room with Tufts holding a 1-0 lead. Junior goalie Scott Greenwood kept the Ephs out of the goal, despite a quality scoring chance in the 38th minute off the foot of sophomore forward Mark Sisco-Tolomeo.

“I think the increase in scoring is a result of a more aggressive and attacking-mind-

ed attitude among everybody on the team,” Majumder said. “The team as a whole has increased productivity in front of the net in the last couple games. After scoring only three goals in seven games, to net six in two games is obviously a massive improvement.”

Majumder found himself in the box again just after the second half started and was able to put home his second goal of the game, giving Tufts a 2-0 lead by poking a ball past Alcorn. Despite a standout defensive performance by the Ephs, the Jumbo offense tacked on another goal in the 66th minute when senior tri-captain Jason Kayne scored on a ball from junior midfielder Kevin Lawson.

“After having a piece of the season go not as well as we hoped it would, we knew that getting our momentum back was key,” Lawson said. “After these last few games, I think we’ll definitely have that spark back in our game.

This last weekend…[was] the reminder we needed that we’re capable of doing big things in and out of this league.”

This game marked another strong showing for the Tufts defense. The Jumbos defensive unit has not allowed a goal since the Oct. 4 contest against Hamilton. The Williams game marks the fifth straight clean sheet for Greenwood and ninth overall on the season. The Ephs put together scoring chances throughout the game, but the Jumbo defense held firm and prevented a goal.

“The defense has been awesome all season but particularly during this current streak of shutouts,” Majumder said. “Last year we were praised as having one of the best defenses in the country, but then we graduated some key guys, and some people were unsure of who would replace them. But the defense has stepped up big time, and we are one shutout away from tying the number of regular season shutouts we had last year [at nine].”

The win moves Tufts’ record to 8-3-2 overall (5-2-2 NESCAC) and into third place in the

Evan Sayles / Tufts Daily Archive

Tufts junior midfielder Nathan Majumder attempts to keep possession of the ball in a game against Middlebury on Oct. 10. Majumder is the second highest scorer in the NESCAC this season. conference behind Middlebury and Amherst.

The loss drops Williams’ conference record to 4-4-1, which puts them in fifth place in the conference.

On Tuesday, the team stepped out of conference for a trip to Keene State. The Jumbos emerged victorious by an identical 3-0 score.

Senior midfielder Rui Pinheiro, who scored in Tufts’ 1-0 win against Gordon College on Oct. 13, scored in the 29th minute for what would end up being the game’s deciding goal.

Majumder got the assist on the goal by dropping off a pass for Pinheiro, whose shot ricocheted pass first-year goalie Justin Carnevale.

Just three minutes later, Majumder joined in on the scoring with a strike assisted by Lawson, who tacked on the third and final Jumbo goal in the 86th minute. Sophomore goalie Bruce Johnson made his first start in net for the team, replacing Greenwood for this out-of-conference tilt.

“It felt really amazing [to score],” Lawson

said. “Honestly, it wasn’t much more than a tap-in because [first-year] Jarod Glover left me the ball right in front of the net, but it still felt great to finally get the first.”

Tufts has one remaining game on its regular season schedule, a home bout against Bowdoin on Wednesday, before the postseason begins with the NESCAC tournament on Saturday.

“In the NESCAC tournament, the key will be to approach every game with a need to prove something without an expectation that we will win without working for it,” Majumder said. “The last two seasons, we have gone into the first round of NESCACs believing that we were the better team and thinking that this would help us win — and we have not won a NESCAC playoff game since I have been here.

We have learned that no previous record or achievement will win us a game on a given day — only outworking our opponent for 90 straight minutes will do that.”