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Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Juliette Wu protests vandalization of her artist statement by Coco Arcand News Editor
Duck, professors speak to impact of test-optional policy on applications
by Rohith Raman Senior Juliette Wu posted fliers around campus to protest the vandalization of the artist statement accompanying her art piece, which depicted the issue of language assimilation in China. Wu opted to post these fliers instead of going to Tufts administration to launch an investigation into the incident. Wu’s art piece, titled “Mandarin Only,” is on display in Barnum Hall as a part of an art exhibition hosted by Tisch College. This illustration depicts a high school classroom with an official message written in red that roughly translates to “Please speak only Mandarin; please write in only Standard Chinese.” Wu intended for her art to bring attention to the issue of language assimilation in China, where public school classrooms have been used frequently to enforce rules about only speaking in Mandarin as opposed to other Chinese languages. “The background of this [art piece] is that in mainland China and as well in many different regions of the Sinosphere, we see a lot of language assimilation happening. Basically, what this means is that the state, both local and federal governments, will try to establish a single national language as prevalent and prioritized throughout the
Contributing Writer
nation,” Wu said in an interview with the Daily. “My piece is a way to … challenge language assimilation and to promote language diversity.” In a piece titled “An Extended Overreaction to a Torn Edge” published in the Tufts Observer, Wu explained her personal experiences with language assimilation and why she is so passionate about this issue.
“Please understand the pain of language loss. Individual language loss is something I’ve experienced (the way English cannibalizes Cantonese and Mandarin in my head), but it doesn’t compare to collective language loss,” Wu wrote. “It’s something invisible and unnoticed; it’s when members of your see VANDALIZATION, page 2
The ACT recently released a report which found that scores have dropped for the fifth consecutive year. While some in higher education argue that this indicates a worrying trend about students’ preparation for college-level coursework, many Tufts educators see its primary cause — universities adopting test-optional programs — as a progressive development. In March 2020, Tufts Office of Undergraduate Admissions announced its test-optional policy for a three-year cycle, beginning with the students matriculating in fall 2021. JT Duck, dean of admissions, wrote in an email to the Daily that even before the policy was developed, SAT and ACT scores were just one of many factors being considered in the application process. “We will gather data from two more classes that apply and enroll during this pilot, and that data will inform our conversations about the future of our test-optional policy,” Duck said. Not only has the test-optional policy provided flexibility for students amid the pandemic, but it has also incentivized a more holistic approach to applications, according to Duck.
… are very excited to be working with them on future projects,” Janer-Agrelot said. After a brief roll call, TCU Parliamentarian and Class of 2023 Senator Ibrahim Al-Muasher introduced the Senate bylaws. A change in a bylaw states that Senate standing committees, individual senators or the Senate Executive Board, may only determine, advertise or announce their own official position or endorsement on a project initiative or statement after a vote of the entire body. After lots of discussion, the bylaw amendment passed. “No individual or group may use the Senate’s name or logo in advocating on behalf of projects, ideas or initiatives unless it is clearly stated that Senate has come to an agreement upon the issue through a vote of the full body,” the new bylaw reads. “There shall be no exceptions.”
Al-Muasher then introduced a letter that Tufts Labor Coalition sent to Vice President of Operations Barbara Stein on Oct. 28. asking for a town-hall style meeting where facilities workers can discuss their concerns directly with the administration. “As students, we feel it is important that the workers that make up our community are heard and treated fairly,” TLC wrote in the letter. “Facilities workers do so much to support students, and we want to be part of an institution that treats them the same way.” TLC explained in the letter that prior to the pandemic, students and facilities workers were fighting for a town hall meeting with the administration where workers could directly express their facilities-related concerns. TLC also explained that an open town hall meeting would be the
best way to allow for this conversation. “We feel that an open forum would create a comfortable environment for facilities workers to voice their concerns,” TLC wrote. “We also believe that this should be an open community conversation, considering that the wellbeing of campus workers affects all members of the campus community.” The TCU Senate voted 24–0 to endorse TLC’s statement. Class of 2023 Senator Jalen Little then introduced several supplementary funding requests. TFL Comedy, a comedy group, requested $200 for increased costume expenses for the group’s comedy shows. The request passed by acclamation with nine Allocations Board members voting in favor, none opposing and none abstaining.
VIA JULIETTE WU
Juliette Wu posted a graphic on Instagram on Nov. 1, accompanied with a caption about language diversity in China.
“Our application review process has always placed significant emphasis on curricular rigor, classroom performance, what we glean from letters of recommendation, extracurriculars and community engagement,” Duck said. “Since going test-optional, we have leaned into those factors even more.” Ryan Redmond, lecturer and interim director of middle and secondary teacher education at Tufts, seconded the factors Duck highlighted, arguing that standardized exams are a poor metric of a student’s overall qualifications. “It tells us a bit of information. It tells us how someone was able to do on a standardized exam for a couple hours on one particular day. But it doesn’t really tell us the story of someone’s creativity and commitment to curiosity and the actual knowledge that they might carry,” Redmond said. “Any move away from [a] focus and priority on a single measure is really important.” Redmond extrapolated these observations to other educational institutions like K-12 schools in Massachusetts. He explained that K-12 schools in Massachusetts rely heavily on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, which uses standardsee ACT, page 2
TCU Senate makes changes to Senate bylaws, endorses statement from Tufts Labor Coalition by Zoe Kava News Editor
The TCU Senate discussed its bylaws, heard a statement from the Tufts Labor Coalition and heard supplementary funding requests in a meeting on Sunday. TCU Historian and Class of 2024 Senator Mariana JanerAgrelot discussed the TCU Senate meet and greet which took place on Nov. 5. Various administrators were present at the meet and greet including University President Anthony Monaco, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences James Glaser, interim Dean of the School of Engineering Kyongbum Lee, Provost and Senior Vice President Nadine Aubry and Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos, among others. “We had a pretty productive conversation where we … created dialogue with admin and we
SPORTS / back
FEATURES / page 3
EDITORIAL / page 7
Tufts soccer brings home NESCAC trophy
‘Where Dreams Come True’: The Tufts Entrepreneurship Center
Save Tufts Portuguese
The Korean Students Association requested $280 to pay for Lotte Pepero and sticky notes for the organization’s annual celebration of Pepero Day. The request passed by acclamation with eight Allocations Board members voting in favor, none opposing and one abstaining. The National Society of Black Engineers requested $2,400 for event registration and membership dues to send 24 members to a fall virtual conference. The request passed by acclamation with seven Allocations Board members voting in favor, none opposing and two abstaining. Tufts Friends of Israel requested $400 to pay for a speaker event with diplomat Dan Kurtzer. The request passed by acclamation with nine Allocations Board members voting in favor, none opposing and none abstaining. NEWS
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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, November 10, 2021
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Wu does not seek help from OEO VANDALIZATION
continued from page 1 own speech community say that language shifts are ‘organic’ and that speaking perfect, non-accented Mandarin without fangyan weighing it down is a marker of achievement.” At the beginning of the semester, Wu noticed that her artist statement had been vandalized as her name, the title of her piece and one-third of her statement had been ripped off. The other art pieces and accompanying art statements in the exhibit were left untouched. Alex Yang, a Tufts student who grew up in Beijing, shared his feelings upon hearing about the vandalization. “I am still grateful and proud of the fact that I am Chinese,” Yang, a senior, wrote in an email to the Daily. “I feel comforted knowing that anywhere I go, I can find a community of people who share my common foods, upbringing, and hardships too. And that is exactly why it shocked me so much knowing that this vandal had so much hate in their system that they would overlook these experiences that bring us together.” In her Observer article, Wu described how she took about a month to process the event
before deciding to hang 50 fliers in prominent locations around campus in retaliation. These fliers used strong language to convey Wu’s feelings about the vandalization itself as well as the broader topic of language assimilation. “The person who vandalized my art likely thinks china should be a monoethnic, monolinguistic state; that language diversity threatens this elusive image of ‘national unity;’ that being ‘chinese’ equates to speaking mandarin, and mandarin only,” Wu wrote on the flier. “What a fucking joke.” Pictures of these fliers also began to circulate on social media, although Wu did not upload these pictures herself. Wu’s message has been met with mixed results, as she has received an outpouring of both support and backlash. “It was a difficult week for me because a lot of people were speaking negatively about what I’ve done. I have had a lot of support as well, mostly people reaching out to me on my [social media platforms] but there has been backlash as well,” Wu said. “I would have preferred that people who disagreed with me engaged with me on equal terms in direct conversation.”
Wu described her decision to post fliers instead of going to Tufts administration to launch an investigation, highlighting the unresponsiveness of the Office of Equal Opportunity. “I hear a lot about how OEO is unresponsive in terms of addressing these issues, and I hear a lot of friends also talking about how they’ve been ignored,” Wu said. “So I just thought that contacting Tufts administration would not have been productive in that sense.” Wu added that OEO would likely have deployed the Tufts University Police Department, which she does not support, to conduct an investigation. “I think also, even if [the administration] did decide to take action, it would have been only through the deployment of TUPD,” Wu said. “What I don’t support about TUPD is the concept itself of campus police disrupting normal student life.” Executive Director of Media Relations Patrick Collins emphasized that this vandalization is against the university’s policies, while mentioning that OEO has reached out to offer help to Wu. “Acts of vandalism and destruction of property— especially if that damage is
hate-driven—are against Tufts University’s values, which encourage respect for each other, differing views, and the principle of inclusion,” Collins wrote in an email to the Daily. “Personnel from the Office of Equal Opportunity have reached out to see if Juliette is interested in pursuing an investigation.” Jaden Pena, Tufts Community Union diversity officer, emphasized his support for Wu during this difficult time. “I think that speaks volume about how students feel the way Tufts admin deals with acts of vandalism,” Pena, a junior, wrote in an email to the Daily. “I completely support Juliette and her frustration and I want to apologize that we go to a school where stuff like this happens far too often.” Pena directly condemned the acts of the vandal, adding that their actions were an unacceptable response to disagreement. “I don’t care if you disagree with everything someone else believes in, you should never be disrespectful or inconsiderate of someone else’s feelings and beliefs,” Pena said. “That is the bottom line. Keep your negativity, hate, bias, and disrespectfulness to yourself.”
Secondary education professors believe standardized tests exclude good candidates ACT
continued from page 1 ized exams to analyze student achievement throughout primary and secondary schooling. However, the assessments gradually also became those of teachers and schools, which led to further controversies. He suggested that going beyond a singular measure of success is a starting point for decreasing educational inequity. While teachers and smaller class sizes would diversify these students’ education, address student-specific needs and remove the need for this system, it will take time and funding to achieve, according to Redmond. “It all comes down to time and resources,” Redmond said. Resource inequality seems to be a recurring theme throughout educational institutions, whether it is the Massachusetts middle schools or the ACT. Noelle Roop, a lecturer within the Tufts Department of Education, sees standardized testing as a tool of alienation. “We are talking about the funds to take a test prep class … Do you have the car, the means of transportation? … Maybe your family needs you to work, so you taking Saturdays to go do this test prep class isn’t an option,” Roop said. “Standardized tests,
VIA ISTOC VINTUS OKONKWO / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES
Bendetson Hall, where the Office of Undergraduate Admissions is located, is pictured on Feb. 28, 2018. as admissions criteria, reflect an opportunity gap.” Students of color, students from lower-income communities, English language learners and disabled students are all at a disadvantage within this testing process, according to Roop, and these standardized tests assume a neutral playing field, from everything like access to test prep to English proficiency. “Who do we want as part of our Tufts community? What do we as a community value? What prior knowledge do different communities and cultures bring
that we want to celebrate and acknowledge as really important and pivotal to moving education forward,” Roop said. “The way we’ve done it historically privileges very few and it just keeps privileging that same group.” Roop suggested that prioritizing other elements of a student’s application and not requiring these standardized exams seems to be a way of diversifying the student body and making higher-level education more accessible. COVID-19 and the myriad of issues that came along with it as well as already existing systemic
issues have continued to divide the population, she observed. “So many people lost jobs; mental health is at an all-time low. People are really struggling,“ Roop said. “People who didn’t have access have less access.” Duck noted that there was a 35% increase in applicants, and this first-year class was the most ethnically and racially diverse class on record. Although there are numerous reasons for how this increase may have occurred, Duck thinks the test-optional policy contributed to the surge in applications.
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Features
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Summer venture accelerator fosters innovation in students’ startups by Amelia Becker Features Editor
Have you ever had a crazy idea but didn’t know where to go with it? Seen other people creating startups and been unsure of what that actually means? Elaine Chen, director of the Derby Entrepreneurship Center and Cummings family professor of the practice in entrepreneurship, wants students to know that anyone can be an innovator, no matter how outlandish their idea might seem at first. Junior Brawner Quan’s startup, Gen Ai, uses generative artificial intelligence textto-3D models to assist in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. The idea behind the startup came from a research paper Quan read last year. His larger vision is to eventually develop a fully generative video game using this AI text-to-3D technology. Quan talked to a computer science professor he had done research with who suggested he connect with the Derby Entrepreneurship Center to work on the business side of his idea. Through the Entrepreneurship Center, Quan was able to connect with Chen. “I get on a call with her and I’m like I have a crazy idea. … I know that I shouldn’t be able to do this as a sophomore,” Quan said. “I was some random kid at a random college as a sophomore. I’m not in the position to create this crazy startup, but I want to do it. I just want to try.” Chen gave him three tasks: find a cofounder, pick a target market and join the venture accelerator program. Quan quickly went on a search for a cofounder and worked on researching a market for his product. “I can say ‘Oh, I want a text-to-3D model,’ but who are we going to sell it to, like who’s actually going to pay for that? How are we going to get it good enough to where someone will actually pay for it?” Quan said. At first, Quan joined the self-guided venture accelerator program before a team dropped the full-time program during the first week and he was offered a spot there. “I was that kid working really closely with them, really clearly obsessed with my idea and it was clear that I was thirsting for opportunity,” Quan said. “They offered me the spot in the full-time [program].” The self-guided summer venture accelerator program was launched last summer as a “light touch” experience with weekly updates and online educational experiences. According to Chen, the full-time 11-week pro-
Sam Russo and David Wingens Potty Talk
Dirty Ballou, Part 2: The Electric Ballou-galoo
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week ago, we spelunked through the spooky cellars that are Ballou Hall’s downstairs bathrooms. But this week we reveal the real horror as we board Ballou’s regal elevator and soar to its higher floors. Tufts’ administrators are living in plush pottydom while we, the people, survive with odd smells and ugly tiling. We once called Miner Hall a study in contrasts. When we wrote this, we were young, naive, still-pure bathroom explorers. We did not know who we
COURTESY ELAINE CHEN, BEN WEBB AND BRAWNER QUAN
Elaine Chen (left), Ben Webb (middle) and Brawner Quan (right) are pictured. gram consists of biweekly roundtables with all of the teams in the accelerator, one-on-one meetings with Chen and Tina Weber, the program lead and entrepreneurial lead, as well as workshops throughout the summer. Chen explained the framework of the program. Each week had a theme around which workshops and speaker events were planned. The first month focused on the market and the customer, the second on the business model and the third on company building. Outside of these thematic events, the weekly roundtables provided a setting for the startup teams to work together and help one another. “Mondays and Thursdays we meet with the whole cohort,” Chen said. “We go around, we share status and a lot of what’s happening there is then the teams help each other. The check-in format is ‘What did we do last week? What are going to do this week? Do we need help anywhere?’ And typically, that’s when the really interesting conversations happen. People trade pro tips, people trade people. It’s a very collaborative crowd.” Outside of the summer venture accelerator program, the Derby Entrepreneurship Center hosts events all year round to help students get involved in entrepreneurship and innovation. September was innovation month, which focused on helping students get acclimatized to the innovation ecosystem, according to Chen. During that month, Chen ran a workshop on finding problems worth solving, as well as a maker’s space workshop. The Tufts Ideas Competition is another one of the center’s events; it’s held annually in October and November, and this year’s theme is “Innovating with Impact.” “What we want students to do is think about what area of interest they really care about,” Chen said. “It might be environmental sustainability or racial justice or food systems or whatever it is they care about. Then narrow it down to some problem statement that they can then come up with a solution that’s differ-
entiated and a way of getting that out into the field so it can have an impact.” The Derby Entrepreneurship Center also offers a series of workshops called “Jumbo Cafes” that help students define a problem statement, do primary market research, customer discovery and more. This fall, the center ran a pitch to match events through which students could pitch ideas to find team members, as well as a number of speaker events. The center hosts live pitching workshops to help students prepare to pitch their ideas to a real audience. In the spring, the center’s main event is the $100k New Ventures Competition, coupled with a number of workshops to help students organize their ideas, prepare to apply and learn how to pitch with passion. For some students, the $100k New Ventures Competition is a pathway into the summer accelerator program, according to Chen. As part of the MS in Innovation and Management (MSIM) program, students are randomly grouped together into teams at the beginning of the semester and tasked with coming up with a business idea. Ben Webb, an MSIM candidate, and his team worked with the Tech Transfer and Industry Collaboration office to look at technologies that have been invented at Tufts that they could develop a business case for. A few successful startups have come out of the MSIM program using technologies that were invented at Tufts, according to Webb. Cerobex Pharmaceuticals, the business Webb and his team have been working on, includes a drug delivery technology that can get medications across the blood brain barrier. The question was whether the business would remain a class activity, or if it was actually feasible. “We were really intimidated approaching that problem and thinking: Do we have enough expertise to do this? Is it just going to be an interesting sort of academic exercise? Or is this something that we could actually develop a real business plan
would become and what we would discover. On our first attempt to locate the upper floors’ lavatories, we were told by an employee, presumably of the ‘administration,’ that there were no bathrooms upstairs — we’d be better suited, she suggested, to check the basement. Why give poor, desperate students the chance to relieve themselves among royalty? Moving from the dungeon-like bathrooms beneath the surface of the academic quad to the homey, softly scented lavatories that the administration enjoys, we became Katniss Everdeen on her first trip to the Capitol. The second-floor bathroom contains light green scented candles and a vanity tastefully topped with light granite. The molding is singly impressive, no doubt constructed by a maestro in the field. But for the poster advertising a 2012 performance of the acclaimed melodrama “Pierrot lunaire,” the bathroom feels like it belongs in a quaint and unjustifiably expensive bed and breakfast in Vermont.
Adding to this sense are the signs notifying people waiting if the bathroom is in use. When you lock the door, it flashes a red “OCC.” The ‘administration,’ if that is even their name, has no time for extra syllables. Likewise, when the bathroom is unoccupied it reads “VAC,” a subtle nod to the constant vacuuming that must happen to maintain the stunning state of those carpets. Replete with an odor-neutralizing spray and cone, you have to wonder whose actions have led the likes of Nadine Aubry to implement such smell-reducing measures. The only oddities are the small utility closet and the problematic toilet paper predicament. The free-standing sink and haphazardly strewn water tankards behind a nicely adorned door are reminders of the humble roots underlying this meretricious display of wealth. So too with the meager amount of single-ply toilet paper — we assume members of the administration treat this as a BYOP situation. Up one narrow set of stairs, there lies yet another all-gender restroom, the likes of which
for and potentially turn into a business?” Webb said. Webb and his team applied and were accepted to a number of startup competitions, including the Tufts $100k competition. During the other competitions, Webb and his team received feedback on their business and totally redid their pitch before the finals for the Tufts $100k competition. “Over the three weeks or four weeks between the semi finals for the $100k and the actual finals, we pitched 10 times, got completely torn apart about eight times and redid the whole thing. We probably made 15 presentations between that time,” Webb said. “But then we went to $100k. We felt really prepared; we felt like we really knew what we were doing. And we had a fantastic pitch.” Webb was able to forward his Tufts $100k application directly to the summer venture accelerator program, which he thought would provide a good opportunity to continue the work his team had been doing during the year, as well as accountability over the summer. Similar to Quan’s experience, Chen and Weber helped provide structure to Webb and his team, including actionable goal setting throughout the program. Webb said the goals for Cerobex changed multiple times over the summer, but that that process was crucial. “When you’re trying to build a startup, you can’t have long term goals that you aren’t making progress on, you need to break that down into goals that are achievable in the short term, or at least progressively in the short term, or you need to reframe what those long term goals are, because you’re never going to get there if you don’t start making that progress,” Webb said. “So we did a lot of work on that.” Both Webb and Quan greatly appreciated the summer venture accelerator as an important part of where their startups are now. The accelerator provided tangible skills like networking, connections with other entrepreneurs and accountability throughout the summer to push their startups forward. But the work of the summer accelerator is not the end for these two, or for other startups. Throughout the year, anyone who is interested in anything innovation-themed can get involved through the Derby Entrepreneurship Center and can set up meetings with the staff or browse their online resources. “We just want everybody to have a little bit of exposure to innovation and entrepreneurship, because it’s not just about startups — it’s about a mindset and a skill set,” Chen said. downtrodden students can only dream. While it lacks the former’s carefully placed stench mitigation devices, this bathroom boasts two pairs of wooden kitchen cabinets tucked into the corner. Rather than the expected toilet paper, there’s just regular paper. And lots of it. If you ever need printer paper and want to stick it to the bourgeois capitalists, this is your place. Mercifully, the attentive observer will spot a lone canister of Lysol Neutra Air to spare them the shame of emerging from a reeking bathroom face-to-face with Dean James M. Glaser. Ballou Hall Floor 2: 10/10 Homesick firstyears, this is a place where you can feel at ease. Ballou Hall Floor 3: 7/10 Makes you ask the big question: Who but T.P. Monaco? 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.
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Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Despite recycled horror tropes, ‘Last Night in Soho’ keeps audience in suspense by Henry Chandonnet Contributing Writer
The genre of horror has experienced tremendous change over the last several years, whether it be with social commentary horrors like “Get Out” (2017) or campy horror comedies like “Jennifer’s Body” (2009). Still, maybe there’s something to say for classic forms of horror, be it ghastly jump-scares or extreme psychological manipulation. These are certainly elements found in “Last Night in Soho” (2021). Though the film does nothing truly new or outside-the-box, it’s an all-around enjoyable time. In using the prototypical tropes of a psychological thriller, “Last Night in Soho” grabs the viewer and doesn’t let them go. In a horror movie, that’s all one can ask for. “Last Night in Soho” follows Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), a student from the British countryside who comes to London for fashion school. After being verbally bashed by many of the students in her dorm, Eloise decides to move into nearby lodging being rented out by Miss Collins (Diana Rigg). During her first night sleeping there, Eloise dreams herself back to the 1960s in the form of aspiring singer Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy). Sandy finds an agent in Jack (Matt Smith), though the relationship soon becomes deeply manipulative. The dreams start to fade into Eloise’s daily life, and she becomes increasingly more haunted by Sandie’s story. The plot itself shows just what the film is meant to be — a psychological thriller. This is a somewhat overplayed archetype, and thus there is little novelty to be found in the film. Still, “Last Night in Soho” does a stellar job at reaching the goals of the genre. One is constantly disoriented while watching, confused as to what could come next and afraid of where Eloise’s mind may take her. The viewer is trapped within the perspective of Eloise, and thus is forced to ride along with her through the ensuing paranoia and violence. Part claustrophobic turmoil and part murder mystery, “Last Night in Soho” effortlessly con-
fuses and distorts the narrative into a compelling psychological masterpiece. The leading reason for the film’s success, however, is in its aesthetic and design. In fluctuating between the present day and the 1960s, director Edgar Wright took on the tremendous task of creating two individual schemes that can stand on their own, but eventually combine into one collective hellscape. Wright does this by employing every scenic tool in the book, whether through specific lighting choices or sprawling scores. For example, when Eloise is falling back into the dream of Sandie as things begin to go awry, neon colored lights flash over Eloise’s body. The joyous colors of ‘60s glam begin to represent violence and trauma. Likewise, the scoring of Steven Price makes the horror scenes seem grandiose, but never overplayed or wildly predictable. The peaceful scoring of the countryside is juxtaposed with the chaotic scoring of London. Likewise, the modern sound of Eloise’s present is juxtaposed with the eerily retro sound of Sandie’s story. In sum, it is the scene design and aesthetic choices that allow the film to make such a strong impact and to maintain the viewers attention. The film also contains some standout performances, namely from McKenzie and Taylor-Joy. Much of the film’s fanfare comes from Taylor-Joy, straight off the hit Netflix show “The Queen’s Gambit” (2020). Taylor-Joy gives a phenomenal performance as Sandie, actively embodying the trauma she faces while still maintaining an elusive and dreamlike allure. Still, the biggest props must be given to McKenzie, who effortlessly leads the film and allows the viewers into her role’s mind. It is through Eloise that the viewer understands the narrative chaos, and thus it is McKenzie who must coax the viewer along with her and rationalize some of her poor choices. The viewer needs to have some trust in Eloise, or they will lose interest; it is McKenzie who works hard to maintain that delicate dynamic. That said, it is important to note that, from a plot perspective, the film often falls short.
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“Last Night in Soho” came out in theaters on Oct. 29. The ending is filled with holes and different workarounds which bring into question the validity of the answers provided. This, for some, is a deal breaker. For those who need a good and satiating solution to end a film, “Last Night in Soho” may disappoint. Still, the film may be more about the journey than the conclusion. The viewer leaves feeling fulfilled not by the conclusion provided, but by the
experience as a whole. Thus, the plot holes are important to consider, but not necessarily completely destructive to enjoying the movie. In sum, “Last Night in Soho” hits the psychological horror archetype, and it does it well. The film in no way reinvents the wheel or provides new commentary, but maybe that isn’t necessary for a good film. Rather, it served as a reminder
of just how enjoyable horror movies can be. Horror provides a somewhat counterintuitive respite for the wandering mind, allowing oneself to get carried away in a scary or shocking narrative. Through the gore and the jump-scares, horror provides a fun and engaging viewing experience. This film hit that effect on the head, and it was simply a joy to watch.
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Wednesday, November 10, 2021 | Arts & Pop Culture | THE TUFTS DAILY
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Scott Cooper’s ‘Antlers’ lacks intention and depth by Miranda Feinberg Staff Writer
Content warning: This article mentions familial abuse. After a tumultuous 18-monthlong wait buoyed by COVID-19 restrictions and setbacks, Scott Cooper’s “Antlers” (2021) has at long last premiered. Though the film features some pretty cool imagery, gore and creature design, it is, at its core, a movie that simply doesn’t know what story it wants to tell nor how it wants to tell it. While juggling half-baked themes of abuse and neglect, poverty, addiction, environmentalism, dot dot dot and playing into the unfortunate horror trope of using Indigenous mythologies in a film that is not centered around Indigenous people or stories, the movie feels unfinished, like each aspect is a sentence trailing off into destination-less ellipses. There’s very little connection, whether it be between plot points, characters or thematic intentions. Indecisive on whether to focus on hard hitting themes or haunting visuals, the film falls into the modern horror pitfall of creating overly serious yet hollow metaphors of their monsters. Throughout, the movie often went down the ‘show don’t tell’ route without actually showing or explaining anything. Overall, it is a mess of a story and is almost but not quite saved by its visuals and creature design. “Antlers,” which takes place in small-town rural Oregon, follows Julia (Keri Russell), an elementary school teacher who’s just moved back to her hometown to live with her police chief brother Paul ( Jesse Plemons) in the house they grew up in with their abusive father. It also follows Lucas ( Jeremy T. Thomas), a young boy in Julia’s class whose father and brother have secretly been infected with a mysterious and insidious illness after being attacked by an antlered creature. As people begin to go missing and bodies are found mutilated in the town at large, Julia begins to notice some worrying signs about Lucas’ behavior and appearance. She suspects abuse, having been
Colette Smith Brands that deserve your dollars
Elvis & Kresse
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lvis & Kresse creatively reworks materials destined for the landfill to create luxury lifestyle accessories and home goods. The brand is guided by their three pillars: rescue, transform and donate. The “rescue” pillar encompasses the first step in the production process. The process of upcycling began in 2005 when Elvis & Kresse discovered that the fire hoses used by
through her own trauma in the past. As the town, with Paul taking the lead, tries to figure out what is wreaking destruction, Julia tries to delve into Lucas’ life to help in any way she can, and as time runs out, the two storylines bleed together. The biggest thematic and symbolic focus of the film, and its worst transgression, is the portrayal of child abuse as it applies to both Julia and Paul and to Lucas and his brother. It comes off as very, very awkward — trying to fit together a monster seeped in folklore (whose origins are delivered in a tight, one-time info dump so that the audience gets its Wendigo 101 lesson) with the traumatic reality of familial abuse. It doesn’t make sense, and it doesn’t seem fair. With a flesh-and-blood monster so tied to the abuse, one would think that defeating the monster would be therapeutic or triumphant, or even surface-level satisfying. However, the monster’s existence is tied to the loss of real and specific human life, and defeating it only deepens that first loss with no allowance for relief. Abuse goes untethered, floating above the movie in the outskirts. The way that abuse is portrayed for different siblings in the same household is an interesting angle, yet this too goes underdeveloped. The idea that siblings have different experiences within the same situation is important, but the idea of saving each other is turned on its head and thrown out the window. While the plot follows some vaguely cliched horror roadmaps, the themes never lead to where you expect them to and end up being undermined by plot choices. The saving graces of this movie are the striking visuals. Crisp and muddy nature is the backdrop for the movie, and through deep greens and dark fogs, this movie is able to hide its own emptiness behind beautifully haunting mirages. Toward the end of the film, a trend of flashing police lights and car headlights cut through fog in wound-like deliberation, and the effect the London Fire Brigade were shipped to the landfill once their usage as life-saving tools was over. The founders saw the potential in using the material to create something completely different than its intended purpose. Another fabric that Elvis & Kresse have started to use is parachute silk, which is unusable after getting small tears. But instead of letting the fabric head to the landfill, the brand realized its potential as a lining for their fire-hose bags and wallets. In addition to the fire hoses and parachutes, Elvis & Kresse have learned to rework materials like printing blankets, coffee and tea sacks, shoe boxes and auction banners. These landfill-bound materials
VIA WIKIPEDIA
“Antlers” came out in theaters on Oct. 29. is amazing. Furthermore, the gore and creature design is amazing. The different stages of ill characters and different portrayals of the monstrous wendigo are all disturbing, blood-soaked and blackveined. Cooper has a talent
for solidifying the settings and atmosphere of the film. Overall, the movie, even if not outright offensive, was disappointing. Call it a victim of high expectations compounded by a delayed release, but the movie came off as unfin-
ished — a lazy script wrapped in beautiful images and design. The film had some good scares, well-executed gore and truly amazing looking creatures, as well as solidly fine performances from truly talented actors, but to what end?
find new lives as anything from the lining of their bags to their shipping packaging. The beauty of Elvis & Kresse is how they think about materials creatively and find a purpose for them that may be so different from their original purpose that it was never imagined before. In addition to their own work, Elvis & Kresse have partnered with the Burberry Foundation to repurpose leather scraps wasted in the luxury fashion production process. The five-year partnership will see Elvis & Kresse receiving a grant from the Burberry foundation and reusing a minimum of 120 tons of leather scraps Burberry products for accessories and homeware. Half of
the profits will go to renewable energy charities and the other half will be used to continue and expand their upcycling mission. The second pillar that Elvis & Kresse stands behind is “transform.” Due to the nature of upcycling, the brand’s process is flipped: While most designers start with an idea, Elvis & Kresse must start by identifying a problem. For example, the designers identified that there was a problem with how many fire hoses were being wasted. After they identified the issue, they moved on to creating products. The designers compare their process to kintsugi, which is “the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with
gold.” Similarly, Elvis & Kresse invest time and attention in making the materials more valuable than they were at any point in their previous life. The final pillar is “donate.” In addition to the upcycling process, the brand donates 50% of its profits to charities like the Firefighters Charity, WWF, Help for Heroes, Comic Relief and the British Forces Foundation. All the way through, from upcycling to donating, you can be sure that your dollars are well spent when you purchase Elvis & Kresse products. Colette Smith is a senior studying quantitative economics. Colette can be reached at colette. smith@tufts.edu.
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THE TUFTS DAILY | FUN & GAMES | Wednesday, November 10, 2021
F& G
tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Maddie: “Wait go back. What is an Irish whistle?”
FUN & GAMES
SUDOKU
SWEATER WEATHER
By Annalise Jacobson
Difficulty Level: Living life with a -5.50 eye prescription.
Tuesday’s Solutions
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CROSSWORD
Opinion
tuftsdaily.com
7 Wednesday, November 10, 2021
EDITORIAL
Ending the Portuguese minor goes against Tufts’ values The Tufts School of Arts and Sciences recently announced the decision to end the Portuguese minor, placing the ability to learn the Portuguese language at Tufts in jeopardy. Current students who have already begun the minor sequence will be able to finish, and the department will continue to offer Portuguese language classes through the 2022–23 academic year. However, with the elimination of the minor, the Portuguese program as students know it will soon cease to exist, depriving members of the Tufts community of meaningful opportunities to engage with the language. Lecturers and students were caught off guard by the decision, which was attributed to low enrollment. Amid shifting faculty members in the program, the department hired a part-time lecturer in the spring who believed the university would continue to offer the minor for the coming future. The sudden change with little notice and confounding rationale has also left students
Jacob Fridman A Better Consenus
Expand the Child Tax Credit into a basic income
D
emocratic Senator Joe Manchin’s concerns about the labor participation and budgetary costs of the Child Tax Credit have forced lawmakers to consider extending it for only one more year, not to 2025 as the Biden administration had proposed. Manchin’s demands would cap recipients’ earnings just $60,000 in income and add work requirements.
scrambling and disappointed by the administration, highlighted by a student petition and campaign to maintain and improve the Portuguese minor. According to Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences James Glaser, who was involved in the decision, the Portuguese program was terminated due to limited resources. However, the Portuguese program has only two part-time faculty members, according to the Tufts School of Arts and Sciences website, and is already offering only three courses in the upcoming spring semester according to the same site. Students involved in the campaign also reject the notion that the decision was made on the basis of low enrollment. From the classes of 2016 through 2020, the university graduated nine Portuguese minors, a number that is comparable to several other language minor programs. In fact, the Hebrew, German, Japanese and Russian minors graduated nearly the same number during the same timespan. Additionally, when an academic program is already strapped
for resources and has only two part-time faculty members, it is difficult for it to expand or grow. It is unreasonable to cut a program on the basis of low demand when the university has not put adequate time and effort into making it successful. The university’s circular reasoning for eliminating the program is inconsistent with the realities of program operation. Cutting programs based on resource allocation alone is at odds with the university’s values of justice, inclusion and equity. The move also counteracts Tufts’ efforts to promote diverse curricula through its goal to become an anti-racist institution. Tufts has a strong commitment to world languages, evidenced by its six-semester language distribution requirement for Arts and Sciences students. The decision to end the Portuguese program is a stain on that record and that policy. Despite low enrollment, this program offers numerous benefits to students and the Tufts community at large. Tufts’ host communities boast high counts of Portuguese and Brazilian
immigrants. Portuguese is the third most spoken language in Massachusetts and is spoken by approximately 279 million worldwide. Even Somerville High School teaches Portuguese. Through coursework in the Portuguese department, Tufts students are encouraged to engage with community partners and organizations in our host communities. The Portuguese program uplifts the diverse voices of our community by celebrating Portuguese language and culture. Furthermore, the language offers students many opportunities for professional growth and development — particularly given Brazil’s increasing influence in global affairs. We urge Tufts to continue the Portuguese minor and support the Portuguese program through more — not less — investment in faculty and other important resources. To do this, Tufts should implement the requests of the student-run Save Tufts Portuguese campaign. Specifically, the administration should continue to support the
minor and introduce a full-time coordinator in addition to one or more part-time lecturers. There is broad support for continuing the minor from the community — the petition has since garnered over 1,200 signatures, and over 200 faculty members, students and alumni have provided testimonials on the value and personal significance of the program. Beyond merely ensuring the continuation of Portuguese classes, it is also critical that the university take steps to build its courses and staffing, to ensure the long-term viability of the program as a whole. When administrators solely prioritize classes that are in high demand and do not provide the proper resources to allow programs to grow, students lose the ability to diversify their interests and develop broad intellectual capabilities. The inclusion of Portuguese is necessary for maintaining a robust language program at Tufts, and for maintaining Tufts’ mission to being an anti-racist institution. Tufts must uphold its commitment to educating students on Portuguese language and culture.
I’d argue for expanding it into a permanent basic income of at least $2,000 a month for every American making under $160,000 (the high-end of middle-class income via Pew Research), which includes over 80% of Americans. Parents would get either $2,000 each or $4,000 jointly, and children would get $2,000 each. The income threshold and payment amounts would be adjusted annually, per inflation. It sounds like former 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s Freedom Dividend, but it also sounds like libertarian economist Milton Friedman’s negative income tax or Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend that equally distributes its oil revenue to nearly every Alaskan. Basic income beats welfare because it could help people in escaping poverty. Currently,
if people earn enough at their job to fulfill work requirements, they may lose the benefits and their post-tax income is less than the original welfare, so there’s an incentive to not work and spend less. No-strings-attached payments would allow people to find the right job and buy according to their individual needs. This would bring greater economic stability and productivity. We know this from experiments in Stockton, Calif. and the nationwide Child Tax Credit. Two years of $500 per month given to 125 individuals making less than $46,000 a year in Stockton yielded increased financial stability and a 12% increase in full-time employment, with less than 1% of the money going to alcohol and cigarettes. Most funds were spent on essentials like food and bills, which refutes
the idea that aid will inevitably be wasted. The one-year expansion of the Child Tax Credit gave $3,000 per child ($3,600 for children under the age of six), per month, with phaseouts after $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for couples. What happened? A Brookings survey found that across income levels, the money was mainly put toward emergency savings (telling, when most Americans couldn’t pay a $400 emergency expense pre-pandemic), housing, food, children’s essentials and college funds. A study by the Washington University in St. Louis showed that with the Child Tax Credit, 94% of parents plan to continue or increase work and 21.3% owned a small business or hoped to start one. A Niskanen Center report predicted the support of 500,000 new jobs, a $27 billion consumer
spending increase and $1.9 billion in state and local sales tax revenue. That is productivity at work, spurred by equality of opportunity. We could pay for this by folding the entire welfare state, barring healthcare regulations and child-centric programs like school lunches, into an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (with separate checks for those who don’t file taxes). Or maybe go with Yang’s opt-in system and allow Americans to choose between traditional welfare and the basic income, and adjust budgets accordingly. Either way, there’s a reduced bureaucracy bonus. Let’s give Americans a freer, more equal playing field. Jacob Fridman is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Jacob can be reached at jacob. fridman@tufts.edu.
8 Wednesday, November 10, 2021
SPORTS
tuftsdaily.com
Men’s soccer claims NESCAC title
by Jack Adgate
Assistant News Editor
With victories over Middlebury on Saturday and Connecticut College on Sunday, the Tufts men’s soccer team claimed the NESCAC tournament title. The championship win marks the Jumbos’ third in the last four seasons. Sunday’s championship game was a defensive battle, with both teams combining for only five shots on goal across 90 minutes. Tufts junior forward Sean Traynor cracked through early for the Jumbos, scoring an unassisted goal just nine minutes into the first half. Only once in the first half did the Camels threaten Jumbo first-year goalkeeper Erik Lauta, who saved their only shot on goal. Graduate student midfielder Travis Van Brewer padded the lead for the Jumbos in the second half with another unassisted goal
that put things out of reach for the Camels. The defensive prowess of the Jumbos’ back line came to the forefront in the second half on Sunday. The Jumbos only conceded one shot on goal the entire half. “Defensively, we could not have been better in these past three games,” Lauta said. “Three shutout wins in the playoffs is a huge accomplishment, and it feels amazing.” The 2–0 victory marked Tufts’ third straight clean sheet — the team didn’t allow a single goal in the entire NESCAC tournament. The NESCAC crown comes back to Medford for the second straight season (after 2020’s season was canceled), and for the first time under head coach Kyle Dezotell. In a more back-and-forth semifinal, the difference for Tufts came in a goal from first-year midfielder Ethan Feigin, assist-
ed by fellow first-year Anthony Bhangdia. After a wild first half in which both teams took nearly double-digit shots, Feigin finally cracked through to put the Jumbos ahead. The goal was Feigin’s first of his collegiate career. “It felt amazing [to score], and there’s truly no better feeling than sprinting over to the corner and celebrating with the whole team,” Feigin said. “I’m really happy I was able to contribute in getting the win.” Feigin also explained that he was not the only first-year critical to the Jumbos’ success on Saturday. “[The first-years] really show how every player on the team is capable of making a big impact,” Feigin said. “This weekend, we were unfortunately missing several key players due to injury, and it meant that a lot of us younger guys had to step up and play bigger roles.”
ment on Friday night (26–24, 25–12, 25–21). Despite not making it to Sunday’s championship game, the team did receive an at-large bid for the NCAA championship tournament. “Obviously not the outcome we wanted, but I do think it was a great experience, especially with
KIANA VALLO / THE TUFTS DAILY
The Tufts men’s soccer team is pictured in its win in overtime against Amherst on Oct. 16. The Tufts back line held strong yet again, keeping a clean sheet despite a rampant Middlebury attack all game. Lauta saved five shots in another spectacular performance in goal. “What makes this team special is the grit and determination we share,” Lauta said. “No matter the
conditions, we always come out hungry to win … Losing simply isn’t an option.” With one championship in the bag, the Jumbos begin the NCAA Div. III tournament this weekend. Tufts will host New England College in the first round on Saturday at Bello Field.
such a young team, most of us not having any playoff experience,” senior co-captain and outside/opposite hitter Cate Desler said. “We didn’t play scared and no one shrunk from the challenge which was great to see. It was a good experience leading up to this weekend since everyone now has two playoff games under their belts, and maybe some underlying nerves will be diminished now.” During the regular season, the Jumbos lost to the Ephs in five sets, so they were excited to get a second chance to redeem themselves on the big stage of the NESCAC tournament. Desler and sophomore outside hitter Rileigh Farragher both led the team with eight kills each. Junior libero Stephanie Lee recorded 16 digs for the night. Sophomore setter Maddie Yu said in preparation for the weekend, the team really just focused on themselves.
“Obviously, we wanted to beat these two teams because we had lost to them in the past,” Yu said. “Our main focus though was just to play our best version of volleyball on our side of the net.” On Saturday, the Tufts Jumbos faced a hard-fought battle against the Wesleyan Cardinals, similar to their five set loss in the regular season. They came just short in an energetic fifth set. Desler and junior outside/opposite hitter Maya Lightfoot led the team with 14 kills apiece. Senior setter Ariel Zedric and Yu recorded 25 and 24 assists respectively. Lee totaled an impressive 28 digs for the afternoon. Head coach Cora Thompson said there were a lot of good takeaways to bring with them for the rest of the postseason. “For the most part, we controlled the tempo of both matches, and when the other teams sped up their tempos
we responded with some truly phenomenal defensive efforts,” Thompson said. “We have a very balanced offense and worked to get all of our hitters involved when we could. The NESCAC tournament is the toughest tournament to win because so many of our teams are top ranked teams in the region. We always expect battles and that is what we got. We are better today for the challenges of this past weekend.” Looking ahead to the NCAA regional tournament, Farragher said she is incredibly excited for the season to continue. “I’m just looking forward to getting a chance to play good volleyball. We know that as far as we can go now is as far as our season will take us,” Farragher said. “This is our opportunity to give it all we have.” The team will face Eastern University at 12:30 p.m. at Johns Hopkins University this Friday.
leading to questions about what exactly he meant when he said he was “immunized.” Well, Rodgers was kind enough to clear it up for us on the Pat McAfee Show, the antithesis of sports journalism and a glorified soapbox for players to say whatever they want with little to no pushback on any of those pesky facts. He claimed to have an allergy to an ingredient in two vaccines, but that he had received an unspecified alternative treatment to boost his immune response to COVID19, which is not even remotely the same thing as being “immunized” against the virus. Rodgers lied to avoid public scandal, yet had the audacity to defend his cowardice with a halfbaked, idiotic rambling against “woke cancel culture” and his medical advice from renowned
not-expert Joe Rogan. Rodgers refused the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which he was not allergic to, yet appealed to the league to be considered and treated as though he were vaccinated. The Green Bay Packers organization was fully aware of his vaccination status yet did nothing to refute his lies and misinformation. At the end of the day, everyone does have the right to choose whether to be immunized. But this is not an issue of body autonomy as Rodgers claims it is. Professional athletes, especially those with the platform Rodgers has, are putting the world in danger by not getting vaccinated against COVID-19. Their stardom acts as a megaphone, bringing applause or condemnation depending on their position. Rodgers must be acutely aware of this, or he would not have lied
about his vaccination status. He fell victim to the misinformation about vaccines yet still wanted the positive press that comes with doing what is morally right. Yet he fails to understand that lying about an irresponsible choice is actually worse than the choice itself. By doing so, Rodgers is driving a nail through any image the NFL wished to project. If the league’s MVP makes such a mockery of the process, any effort to appear pro-vaccine will be clouded by his idiocy. Rodgers was not ignorant or coerced, but he knowingly deceived millions of his admirers in order to exploit their adulation for personal gain. What an idiot.
Volleyball falls short of NESCAC championship, but receives atlarge bid for NCAA tournament
by Keila McCabe
Assistant Sports Editor
The volleyball team fell short in the NESCAC tournament this past weekend with a loss in the semifinals to Wesleyan in five sets (25–19, 25–27, 25–18, 19–25, 12–15). Tufts had beat Williams in its first match of the tourna-
ANNA STEINBOCK / THE TUFTS DAILY
Tufts women’s volleyball is pictured playing Amherst in Cousens Gym on Oct. 16.
Oliver Fox Sports and Society
Reinventing stupidity with Aaron Rodgers
T
here is plenty of stupidity in the NFL. Players have retired at halftime, torn their ACL by celebrating a field goal or slid out of the top 10 in the NFL draft because a video of them wearing a gas mask attached to a bong surfaced minutes before they were about to be picked sixth overall. For no reason at all, all those moments of profound stupidity
had career- and league-altering ripple effects, but none of them managed to destroy any chance the NFL had of being a positive social force. That is a privilege reserved only for the reigning league MVP, revered by tens of millions as one of the best players in football today and one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Hoisting the banners of anti-vaxxers through Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers has invented a new kind of stupid. Last week, Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19, and initial reports held that he could still play in Week 9 because he was vaccinated, something he seemed to confirm to ESPN reporter Rob Demovsky in August. However, Rodgers was listed as out for the mandatory 10 days for an unvaccinated player,
Oliver Fox is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Oliver can be reached at oliver.fox@ tufts.edu.