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VOLUME LXXXII, ISSUE 46
tuftsdaily.com
Tuesday, December 14, 2021
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
Smith reflects on progress, future of divestment from fossil fuels by Liz Shelbred and Peri Barest
News Editor and Deputy News Editor
University President Anthony Monaco announced in February that Tufts would prohibit direct investments in 120 coal and tar sands companies. In addition, the university committed to investing between $10 to 25 million in positive impact funds, which seek to make a positive environmental impact in addition to generating a return on investment over the next five years. These efforts to advance sustainability come after demands from student groups, faculty and a Responsible Investment Advisory Group (RIAG) to divest from fossil fuels. This semester, the Tufts Investment Office has continued to pursue these goals, publishing a website and dashboard with updates on their progress and explanations of how the endowment functions.
Tufts’ endowment and investments The endowment is a pool of money maintained over time to provide long-term financial stability for the university. Each year, a sum of money called the payout is taken from the endowment to fund the university’s operation. The remainder is invested to generate more money for the university. In recent years, the payout has represented around 5% of the endowment and has provided about 10% of the university’s revenue, although these amounts vary by year depending on the value of the endowment. Chief Investment Officer Craig Smith emphasized the importance of the stability and flexibility that the endowment provides. “Last year, [with] the pandemic, the university was able ANN MARIE BURKE / THE TUFTS DAILY
see ENDOWMENT, page 2
Bendetson Hall is pictured on Feb. 14, 2021.
Tufts reports 463 COVID-19 cases this semester
CIRCLE survey shows media creation encourages confidence and civic engagement in teens
by Chloe Courtney Bohl and Peri Barest
by Madeline Wilson
Deputy News Editors
Tufts reported 463 cases of COVID-19 across campuses this semester, or approximately 33 per week, according to Patrick Collins, Tufts executive director of media relations. This represents a 12.6% decrease in the number of cases compared to last spring, when the university reported 530 cases. According to Collins, 321 of these cases came from the Medford campus, 32 came from the Grafton campus, 105 came from the Boston campus, and five cases were not attributed to any campus, as of Dec. 11. Christoper Sedore, vice president for information technology and chief information officer, told the Daily that as of Dec. 7, an estimated 1,720 students have been considered close contacts of COVID-19-positive individuals. Cases reached their peak this semester the week of Sept. 13, the first full week of classes, when the university reported a positivity rate of 2% compared to the semester’s average positivity rate of 0.25%. The number of students in isolation peaked at 93 during the same week. The university announced it would increase testing frequency from one to two times
per week for undergraduate students on Sept. 14. Students continued testing twice weekly for the rest of the semester. In addition to the increase in testing frequency, the university announced on Oct. 4 that it would add a third modular housing unit with 44 additional beds on the Medford/Somerville campus in response to the increase in COVID-19 cases. Unlike last fall, students who traveled off campus for Thanksgiving break were not required to quarantine or take any additional safety measures beyond regular surveillance testing. The number of students in isolation on the Medford campus more than tripled — rising from 17 to 52 — between Nov. 27, the Saturday following Thanksgiving, and Dec. 8. A new variant of the COVID19 virus was detected in South Africa on Nov. 24. Two days later, the World Health Organization convened, naming the new variant omicron and urging countries to enhance surveillance for the variant. The Boston Globe reported the first case of the omicron variant in Massachusetts on Dec. 5. Michael Jordan, university infection control health director, said that the tests Tufts see CORONAVIRUS, page 3
Contributing Writer
A study by Tisch College’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) examined how teens below the voting age engage with social media in ways that encourage political engagement and activism. The survey, conducted from September to November of 2020 and published in October of 2021, found that teens who engage in media creation about social and political issues feel politically informed and empowered to engage in political conversations. The study was spearheaded by Abby Kiesa, deputy director of CIRCLE; Madeline McGee, a diverse democracy fellow with CIRCLE; and Sara Suzuki, a postdoctoral research fellow with CIRCLE. A total of 1,847 teens in the United States aged 14 to 17 were surveyed between September and November of 2020. They were asked about their online activity, their engagement with social and political activism online and their experiences with media literacy in and out of school. The study found that nearly 45% of teens surveyed have engaged in at least one of three forms of media creation or sharing on the subject of social or political issues, including sub-
NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY
The Tufts Cannon is pictured on Sept. 24, 2020. The cannon was painted with a message encouraging people to vote in the 2020 presidential election. mitting content about politics or social issues to a website or media platform, creating a visual to raise awareness for a social or political issue or sharing an experience online to raise awareness. Ruby Belle Booth, a research assistant at CIRCLE, discussed how teens engage with politics and activism online. “Teens specifically get a ton of information about politics online,” Booth said. “More teens said they saw information about the 2020 election on these platforms than they heard from their family and friends or at school.” The survey also found that 82% of teens who created media in the past month said they felt more informed about politics and 80%
said that their voice was more powerful as a result. McGee explained how media creation translates to other forms of political participation among teens. “Online engagement does translate to offline engagement, and young people who take part in some of these conversations in online spaces are actually more likely to go on to participate in [what] some people might call ‘realer’ forms of civic participation,” McGee said. Kiesa highlighted the importance of encouraging teens below the voting age to become civically engaged and elaborated on why
ARTS / page 5
FEATURES / page 4
SPORTS / back
Melt gives heartwarming performance
Exploring study abroad at Tufts
Ice hockey freezes under pressure
see CIRCLE, page 3 NEWS
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FEATURES
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ARTS & POP CULTURE
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FUN & GAMES
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OPINION
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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, December 14, 2021
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Tufts pledges $18 million to environmentally-conscious positive impact funds ENDOWMENT
continued from page 1 to increase the payout, which helped tremendously on the financial side of support and all the additional costs and all the complications we ran into,” Smith told the Daily in an interview. The pool of money that the university invests is divided into three different forms of ownership. About 1% of this money is invested as a direct holding, meaning that the university has direct influence over that money and uses it to buy stocks in whatever company it chooses. Separately managed accounts, or SMAs, are a form of indirect investment that represent another 10% of the money Tufts invests. Each SMA is controlled by a third-party manager, who is a specialist hired by the university to make decisions about where and how much to invest on the university’s behalf. Tufts can work with the third-party managers to outline its investment goals and values and customize its investments within the SMAs. The remaining 89% of Tufts’ investments are in commingled funds. Like SMAs, commingled funds are a form of indirect investment, but, unlike SMAs, in commingled funds the university’s money is pooled with other investments for a more efficient, cost-effective investment strategy. Of these commingled funds, 56% are marketable, meaning they are invested in stocks and bonds that are publicly traded. An additional 28% are invested in private equity and venture capital, with 11% invested in private diversifiers and 5% held as liquidity. “This is, … for institutions of our size, how the vast majority of money is invested,” Smith said of commingled funds. “Customization is very hard to achieve in that space.” Since 99% of the university’s invested funds are in indirect investments — where the university has less control over the technicalities of the investments — divestment from the fossil fuel industry can be challenging, Smith said. Current indirect investments in energy The RIAG’s recommendation that Tufts divest from and prohibit future investments in the 100 largest coal reserve and 20 largest tar sands reserve companies — which was approved by the board of trustees in February — specifically concerned Tufts’ direct investments. While Tufts now has zero direct investments in coal and tar sands companies, it continues to hold indirect investments in these sectors. In fiscal year 2021, 0.7% of Tufts’ assets were exposed to the 120 coal and tar sands companies that the RIAG identified as the main contributors to fossil fuels via indirect investments in commingled funds, according to the Tufts Investment Office’s website.
In addition to coal and tar sands companies, Tufts invests both directly and indirectly in companies within the broad energy sector, including oil and gas companies. According to the investment office’s report on its portfolio’s exposure to broad energy sector companies, 2.9% of Tufts’ total assets — including both indirect and direct investments — were exposed to this sector in fiscal year 2021. 0.3% of Tufts’ total assets were directly invested in this sector. Smith expressed that, in the context of Tufts’ entire portfolio, the scale of the university’s investments in the broad energy sector is “exceedingly small.” He further noted that companies classified as being in the broad energy sector are not solely main contributors to climate change like exploration and extraction companies but could also include companies that provide supplemental services to energy companies, such as midstream distribution of oil. The future of Tufts’ indirect investment In addition to prohibiting direct investments in coal and tar sands companies, Tufts said in February 2021 that it would attempt to influence its indirect investments, including commingled funds, by communicating with investment managers. Smith outlined steps that the investment office will take to ensure that the university’s values are considered in future investment decisions. “As we move forward and we make new manager hires in the portfolio, we have embedded … diligence on [environmental, social and governance investment criteria],” Smith said. “We would certainly never hire a manager who has an active focus [in fossil fuels].” Smith said that it is difficult to predict if Tufts will ever completely divest from fossil fuels but that there is potential for change in the future. “My perspective is, over time, there will be greater ability to be able to make those sorts of changes,” Smith said. “Honestly, the most important thing is that we took the first step. … The fact that we’ll have another window in a few years’ time to revisit this and talk about it again is a really positive thing.” Smith said that divestment has a strong symbolic role in pushing the market away from fossil fuels. “Divestment is important,” Smith said. “I think it’s the symbolism of it more than anything else that’s really important; it is a message to send to the market, and collectively, when everyone sends us messages, it can create change.” Professor Paul Joseph, who was a member of the RIAG, echoed Smith’s sentiment that colleges and universities have an important symbolic role to play in divesting from the fossil fuel industry.
“I think if a critical mass of colleges and universities divested, then it’s a critical signal for investment markets and for the country as a whole,” Joseph said. However, divestment does not actually reduce the demand for fossil fuels, Smith said. “The limitation of divestment is … it doesn’t alter what actually creates the continuation of fossil fuels, and that is the demand for fossil fuels, the consumption of fossil fuels,” he said. “We need … massive investment in green energy production … to get in place the capacity to replace fossil fuels, and that is what will ultimately cause a change.” Therefore, the university has also pledged $18 million to positive impact funds since the RIAG recommendations were made. An initial commitment of $10 million was made to a private infrastructure fund focused on wind and solar energy projects. The other $8 million were committed to a venture capital fund which invests in technologies focused on carbon neutrality. Students’ fight for full divestment Members of the Tufts community, including student activists, have continued to call for full divestment from fossil fuels. Tufts Climate Action (TCA) is one such student organization that works with the Tufts community to fight for full divestment. Grace Abe, a member of TCA leadership, said that TCA wants Tufts to commit to divesting their indirect funds. “[We are] really trying to take as many avenues as possible to put pressure on Tufts from within and outside of the Tufts community to try to get them to divest,” Abe, a junior, said. Abe said that TCA hopes to pressure Tufts to speed up their timeline for reconsidering divestment by spreading awareness and gaining support from the student body. TCA is currently working on building a faculty and student coalition, which would create a broad climate plan for Tufts. While deliberating on the actions that Tufts could take in regard to its endowment, Smith said that the RIAG and the investment office fully agreed on the severity of climate change. “[The effects of climate change were] really not in the debate during the time,” Smith said. “The debate was around what are the best actions to take.” When putting together their recommendations for the board of trustees, the group considered what policy changes would be most effective for creating real change. Smith said that weighing the efficacy of pure divestment versus instant positive impact investment was a key part of this deliberation. Reflecting on the RIAG’s recommendations and the investment office’s performance since, Smith expressed pride in the group and its accomplishments. “I recognize that there is certainly a range of views in terms of
how people like the outcome of the decisions and recommendations [of the RIAG],” Smith said. “But I would say that the process was … really quite effective in terms of achieving what it was intended to achieve.” Fossil fuel divestment at other universities In September, Harvard University announced that it would fully divest from fossil fuels, a considerable feat for environmental activists at the university. Harvard plans to let legacy investments in fossil fuels expire and prohibit future investments in the sector. The decision to completely divest came about six months after the university announced that it would longer invest directly in fossil fuels — around the time that Tufts declared the same. Since Harvard’s announcement, institutions across the country have followed suit. The University of Minnesota, the MacArthur Foundation and Boston University are among those that committed to full divestment in the weeks following Harvard’s decision. Activists, including those at Tufts, have used this momentum to demand further divestment at their own schools. Abe commended Harvard’s commitment to full divestment and expressed her hopes for change at peer institutions as a result. “We’re hoping that this Harvard decision will be a catalyst for so many other schools to also divest,” she said. “The fact that [Harvard committed to full divestment] shows that Tufts really has no excuses to not fully divest by saying it’s too complicated or they don’t have control over indirect funds.” Compared to Harvard’s announcement that it would fully divest from fossil fuels, Joseph said that Tufts waited too long to begin its own divestment process. “We’re falling behind our peer institutions in terms of their commitments for direct divestment,” Joseph said. “I think Tufts really had an opportunity to be a leader in this. … I think our status could be further consolidated if we went to a full divestment.” Transparency in Tufts’ investment portfolio In line with the RIAG’s recommendations, the investment office expects to release a formal report on the university’s progress toward sustainable investment between February 2023 and February 2026. This report will assess the university’s achievements in divesting from fossil fuels and investing in positive impact funds, as well as how the market has changed in relation to overall investments in fossil fuels. Smith is hoping to increase the investment office’s transparency about the university’s endowment by conducting guest lectures in classes, holding meetings with student groups and collaborating with Tufts Eco Reps.
News
Tuesday, December 14, 2021 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY
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Tufts sees COVID-19 case rate increase following Thanksgiving break CORONAVIRUS
continued from page 1 administers are able to detect the omicron variant. On Dec. 13, Jordan sent an email to the Tufts community encouraging people to wear 3-ply disposable masks instead of cloth masks, given the recent increase in cases in Massachusetts and around the country and the emergence of the omicron variant. In the same email, Jordan stressed the university’s mask mandate and urged people hosting events on and off campus to serve food to go rather than in person and not to serve alcohol in order to minimize viral spread while eating and drinking. Tufts implements vaccine mandate, pooled testing; relaxes quarantine and screening policies This semester saw the university adopt a COVID-19 vaccination requirement and move to a twice-weekly pooled testing regimen for undergraduate students. Tufts announced in April that it would require all on-campus students, faculty and staff to demonstrate proof of a COVID19 vaccination for the fall 2021 semester barring a religious or medical exemption. According to Sedore, 96% of COVID-19 cases this semester were breakthrough infections. Jordan described the university’s other COVID-19 protocols and how they helped keep the community safe this semester. “The COVID protocols for the fall semester evolved in accordance with local, state and federal guidance but continued to be stringent and rigorous to keep students, faculty and staff, as well as the surrounding community, safe,” Jordan said in a written statement. “We required COVID vaccinations, continued to require surveillance testing and indoor masking, have conducted rigorous contact tracing, emphasized good hand hygiene, urged students to avoid crowded indoor spaces, and have strongly encouraged students to
PERI BAREST AND CHLOE COURTNEY BOHL / THE TUFTS DAILY
Between Nov. 27, the Saturday following Thanksgiving, and Dec. 8, the number of people in isolation on the Medford/Somerville campus more than tripled, rising from 17 to 52. Since then, the number of people in isolation has fallen to 44.
PERI BAREST AND CHLOE COURTNEY BOHL / THE TUFTS DAILY
Tufts reported a total of 463 COVID-19 cases this semester, with 321 of those cases coming from the Medford/ Somerville campus. obtain COVID booster shots and flu vaccinations.” Jordan explained that taken together, these protocols helped the university avoid a major COVID-19 outbreak. “While vaccinations have played an important role in minimizing spread this fall, it’s the combination of these protocols — and our community’s compliance with them — that have worked to prevent major outbreaks on our campuses this fall,” Jordan said. Medical Director of Health Services Marie Caggiano explained Tufts’ decision to move to a pooled testing system
this semester, a shift from the individual testing the university conducted last semester. “Combining samples from multiple people into a single test is more environmentally sustainable and offers significant resource and cost savings without sacrificing the accuracy or speed of individual testing,” Caggiano said in a written statement. “The environmental impact is significantly less, with one larger tube being used in the pooled test vs. 10 smaller ones being used in the individual test.” Caggiano also reported the university’s pooled testing strat-
egy costs about one third of the previous diagnostic testing strategy. Tufts also modified its quarantine and isolation procedures this semester. Previously, students identified as close contacts of a COVID-positive individual were asked to self-quarantine or isolate in the mods. This semester, those identified as close contacts were asked to take an individual COVID-19 test but were not required to quarantine while they waited for their test result. In December, Tufts stopped asking community members to fill out the daily COVID-19
screening survey, which asked a series of questions about COVID-19 symptoms and exposure. Students had to fill out the screening survey in order to enter the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center, performing arts events and other spaces on campus. “In general, symptom screening surveys have not proven to be as effective a public health tool as anticipated,” Jordan said. “Tufts guidance continues to be that nobody – including visitors – should come to campus if they have COVID symptoms.” University plans to continue current policies into Spring semester According to Jordan, the university is in the process of determining whether to require COVID-19 booster shots for the Tufts community next semester. The CDC recommends that everyone aged 18 and older should get a booster shot six months after receiving two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two months after receiving the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. “We are carefully evaluating CDC and state guidance and have not yet made a decision regarding booster requirements,” Jordan said. “However, getting a booster is probably the single most important thing that … any eligible individual can do to decrease their own risk and to protect their loved ones. We very strongly encourage eligible individuals to receive a COVID19 booster.” Despite many unknowns about the transmissibility and severity of omicron cases, Jordan expects the university to continue its current COVID19 policies into the spring semester. “At the moment, we anticipate no changes to the protocols or the cadence of testing for the spring semester,” Jordan said. “However, we will continue to watch daily case numbers and trends and make data-driven decisions that prioritize the community’s health.”
CIRCLE survey points to importance of media creation, media literacy for civic engagement CIRCLE
continued from page 1 CIRCLE chose to study this demographic. “These building blocks of civic engagement build over time and are not bestowed on someone magically when they turn 18,” Kiesa wrote in an email to the Daily. “It’s critical to start earlier because … if we don’t we’ll probably have a continuously difficult time reducing existing inequalities in political voice and power.” The survey results also emphasized the economic and sociocultural inequalities that can impact the ways teens engage with social and political media online. “There are a lot of disparities in media literacy education and those opportunities are not distributed equally across schools
and across geographies, and they exist also along racial and educational lines,” McGee said. A previous CIRCLE study found that 37% of young people do not feel that they are qualified to share their political opinions online, a sentiment that is disproportionately felt by white women and men of color. “Who is told that their voice matters in these spaces is important,” Booth said. “That’s not just what teachers and media is putting on different racial or gender identities, but it’s also what people perceive as a threat from their friend groups and their social spheres, and that’s highlighted in the finding about the anxiety to post because of social pressure.”
McGee stressed the importance of implementing media literacy into school curriculum. “We think of [media literacy] as the ability to responsibly access and evaluate and analyze and create media,” McGee said. “A little more than half of students who responded had had some sort of media literacy education in schools, with most of those saying that they had learned about the differences between fact from fiction online, how to create things like digital graphics, how to create their own media.” By bringing media literacy into the classroom, the CIRCLE researchers believe that teens will be better able to engage with the politically and socially active content they find online and even create their own.
“The cool thing about implementing media literacy and media creation into the classroom is that it creates inroads for different students who have different interests,” Booth said. “It creates all these different opportunities for young people to find their own interests and the things they’re good at, and the things they want to do, and foster those interests and maybe that’ll go outside the classroom.” Booth also noted an interesting and unexpected piece of data. The survey found that 25% of teens surveyed had learned about or worked with a local news or media outlet in their community, and 41% of teens said they had not but would like to do so. “There’s this narrative that young people don’t read the news
or don’t watch the news, especially local news, and we found that that’s not entirely true,” Booth said. “There’s a lot of young people who are interested in working with local news and local outlets to produce more content or just to learn about the process.” One of the study’s conclusions was that teens who create media that deals with social or political issues not only have more confidence in using their political voices, but are more civically engaged. “When you have a situation where you are empowered to recognize the power of your own voice and to feel more informed about public issues and to take part in some of those civic conversations, that’s really a starting point for all kinds of civic participation,” McGee said.
4 Tuesday, December 14, 2021
Features
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Study abroad programs return in fall 2021 amid pandemic by Aidan Schuler
Contributing Editor
As prospective students make the rounds of endless campus visits, a common topic in each presentation are study abroad programs. It can sound very exciting to travel abroad as a college student, and yet, it can be frightening at the same time. Some students may not be concerned with exploring study abroad options, while others listen intently with a desire to experience another country. Others may need more information in order to take that leap of faith. At Tufts, there are two types of programs students can get involved in: Tufts programs and external, non-Tufts programs. Both give an opportunity for students to learn and grow abroad. According to Dr. Meredith Hyde, director of Tufts-in-London and Tufts-in-Oxford, study abroad programs come in a variety of options, such as direct-enrollment or center-based programs; however, they are all similar in their capacity to offer numerous benefits. “[Study abroad offers a chance] to question your assumptions and the things you ‘know,’ and to realize how something can be understood in an enormous variety of ways,” Hyde wrote in an email to the Daily. “It also gives students a chance to live and work independently, and to navigate very different cultures and experiences on their own as well as in part of a cohort.” Tufts seniors Gillian Rooney and Kathryn Ezeoha are currently studying in Copenhagen, Denmark through an external program called DIS. Rooney has been thinking about studying abroad ever since she was a first-year student. “My parents were big proponents of study abroad. My mother went to Spain in her junior year of college and my father did not and he said it was the biggest regret that he had,” Rooney said. “Everyone I talked to said
Kevin Zhang Tales from the T
The ghost trains of Davis Square
F
or my last column, we’ll talk about the station nearest and (questionably) dearest to all of us: Davis Square. Today, it’s the most convenient place to catch a train to downtown (at least before the GLX opens in 2050). But before there was the Red Line, you could catch other trains at Davis: luxury sleeper trains, mile-long freight trains and even Green Line trains. Let’s talk about these long gone trains of Davis Square. Davis Square was named after Person Davis (no, it wasn’t after Jefferson Davis; yes, that’s
study abroad was the best time in college.” Ezeoha saw studying abroad as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “I don’t know another time in my life where I will spend a significant time living in another country. I have always wanted to go to Copenhagen and study,” Ezeoha said. In Denmark, Rooney and Ezeoha will be taking all their classes abroad in English; however, other study-abroad programs offer unique opportunities for improving a language. For example, Tuftsin-Chile has students utilize their Spanish language skills. According to Dr. Vera Yip, director of Tufts-in-Hong Kong, study abroad gives students a chance to step out of their comfort zones and confront challenges in a new environment, such as learning different teaching styles. “The teaching, learning, [and] expectations can be different. Sometimes, even [though] the course contents are similar, the perspectives and approach may be different to what students are used to at Tufts,” Yip wrote in an email to the Daily. Both Rooney and Ezeoha are excited to be taking courses they may not have been able to take at Tufts. Ezeoha is taking classes to satisfy her electives for her environmental studies major and her entrepreneurial leadership minor and explains how Copenhagen adds nuance to her major. “Sustainability is a big thing here and being in Copenhagen is cool to see first hand how sustainable cities function,” Ezeoha said. Ezeoha’s courses include Climate, Glaciers and Human Impact; Sustainable Business Strategy; Integrated Climate Change Planning; European Urban Design Theories and Textile Design. Beyond coursework, studying abroad also offers the opportunity to become someone who is culturally flexible and whose intention is to understand and respect ways of being in a diverse cultural setting,
according to Dr. Susan Sánchez Casal, director of Tufts-in-Madrid. “At Tufts-in-Madrid, we believe that the benefits depend on what you put into the experience, what you are willing to ask of yourself and give of yourself,” Sánchez Casal wrote in an email to the Daily. “Our students tell us time and time again that the experience of becoming a ‘global person’ changes their lives and their ideas about how they want to live, and we believe them.” Ezeoha had to adapt to living in a different cultural setting, and she outlined some of the cultural differences she experienced in Denmark. “The Danish people are more introverted and keep to themselves. As an outsider, people will not wave to you on the street, or strike up a conversation with you,” Ezeoha said. “But once they get to know you, they are down to earth and fun to be around.” Last year, many study abroad programs were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Tufts-in-Oxford program in England was able to run this semester, due to some unique circumstances. “We knew we could manage the risks because of the unique physical and educational set-up, with a small cohort, a site with controlled access and one on one tutorial teaching,” Hyde wrote. “Oxford had a stringent testing and self-isolating protocol and because of the long-standing nature of the program … we knew we could respond to a variety of possible scenarios in effective ways.” This year, Tufts Global Education is excited to give students the opportunity to learn in a different country again. “Given that study abroad was all but suspended for the 2020–21 academic year, it was important to us to find a way to reinstate study-abroad opportunities for our students as this has been such an integral part of the Tufts University experience for much of its histo-
ry,” Melanie Armstrong, Assistant Director of Tufts Global Education, wrote in an email to the Daily. Tufts Global Education acknowledges that students are living through a constantly changing pandemic; however, they believe they have the required tools to make study abroad happen. “The decision to offer our programs during this phase of the pandemic followed an extensive assessment of the pandemic panorama in each of our countries, and the creation of effective pandemic protocols that work to keep on-site staff, faculty and students as safe as possible,” Casal wrote. “There is always risk involved in study abroad, and the question is never how to eliminate it, but how to minimize it.” For the 2021-22 academic school year, the pandemic has prompted Tufts study abroad programs to operate only in select locations, such as Chile, London, Madrid, Oxford, Paris, and Tübingen. Due to entry restrictions, extreme quarantine measures, and visa problems, programs in Beijing, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Ghana are currently unable to operate, according to Mala Ghosh, Associate Dean and Senior Director of Tufts Global Education. For the external DIS program, Rooney noted that her experience has been safe in regard to the pandemic.
“Denmark has done an exemplary job of controlling COVID so virtually all restrictions are lifted for us,” Rooney said. “All classes are in person. In general, everything is back to normal.” She added that she feels a sense of gratitude to have been able to partake in an abroad program despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “The program is really special, and I am grateful to be enjoying the world unfettered by COVID restrictions. The opportunity to live in a foreign country is really exciting and [I’m] soaking up Danish culture,” Rooney said. Some may make the assumption that study abroad applications have decreased due to the pandemic, but for certain programs, this is not true. The London program has more than doubled in size, and the number of applicants to Oxford has tripled for the 2022–23 academic year, according to Hyde. Studying abroad, for many students, will remain an integral part of their college experiences. “Experiencing other countries is not something you can learn on paper, you have to experience it in person, interact with other people and other cultures,” Ezeoha said. “It is a whole new experience, living somewhere else and trying new things. Everything is new and I am doing it for the first time.”
his real name), a local merchant and politician who built his estate at this sleepy rural crossroads in 1850. In 1858, a horsecar line (think horse-drawn carriages, but on rails) was built from Davis to Union Square, and later Lechmere. In 1870, a railroad — eventually known as the Fitchburg Cutoff — was built between Alewife and Magoun Square, straight through Davis Square, where the West Somerville station was built. The line served everything from freight trains to local commuter trains to luxury long-distance trains. In its heyday, one could board a Pullman sleeper car here in Somerville and ride to Pennsylvania and beyond without ever changing trains. The introduction of fast rail transit transformed this sleepy crossroads into a dense commuter suburb. But equally important
was the railroad’s effect in fueling industrial growth, turning Davis Square into a bustling commercial hub. In 1927, passenger service ended on the line — but by then, it was already under competition from electric streetcars, which succeeded the horsecars. Indeed, between 1898 and 1922, streetcars from Davis could even enter the Green Line near Lechmere and run directly into downtown (a practice ultimately ended after causing massive scheduling headaches). The Fitchburg Cutoff became a freight-only line, with over 20 lumbering freight trains, each easily a mile long, passing right through Davis Square daily. Despite two separate plans, this busy railroad crossing was never eliminated, leading to backlogs of traffic longer than my list of missing assignments.
After World War II, industries began moving out of Boston, and with them went freight traffic. By no coincidence, Davis Square had also been on the decline, having gained a distinctly seedy reputation. As if to cement this, in 1980, the last train rolled through Davis Square. But change was already being planned, in the form of a Red Line extension from Harvard that would be routed via Davis. Planners used this as an opportunity to revitalize Davis Square. The square’s central plaza, in front of J.P. Licks, was built directly on the railway route through the intersection. Space-intensive commuter parking was deliberately avoided — instead, a busway was built, serving the buses that succeeded the streetcars. Funding was set aside for public art, including life-size concrete statues based on Davis Square residents,
and colorful station tiles drawn by Somerville schoolchildren. And the streets were realigned, repaved and beautified to make the pedestrian-friendly square we know today. Davis Square station opened in 1984, and is credited with catalyzing the neighborhood’s rebirth. A major subway station today, traces nonetheless still exist of Davis’s old railways. The Red Line runs under the Fitchburg Cutoff from Davis to Alewife. The line itself has been converted to the Somerville Community Path. And the 87 bus follows the same route as that original horsecar route, thus being the direct descendant of the first trains in Davis Square. Sic transit gloria. Thanks for reading Tales from the T — until next time!
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The Bridge of Sighs (Hertford Bridge) in the University of Oxford is pictured on May 28, 2017.
Kevin Zhang is a junior studying civil engineering. Kevin can be reached at kevin.zhang7@tufts. edu.
Arts & POP ARTS Pop CULTURE Culture
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Tuesday, December 14, 2021
Melt delivers electric performance at Brighton Music Hall, Melt spoke about touring by Maeve Hagerty Arts Editor
On Dec. 10, senior Veronica Stewart-Frommer returned to a city and people she calls her home. As the lead singer for Melt and a current Tufts student, Stewart-Frommer and her six bandmates performed past Friday at Brighton Music Hall, a venue packed to see the group on their last leg of their first headlining tour ever. On Dec. 7, the Daily conducted an interview with band members Marlo Shankweiler, Eric Gabriel and StewartFrommer. Following the release of their successful debut EP “West Side Highway” (2021), the band members discussed their experience touring so far. Shankweiler, who graduated from New York University in 2021, said her experience touring post college has been much better than when she was in school. “There’s nothing just harder than going back to class on that Monday or finishing your assignments when you’re on the road. It feels like the most arbitrary thing,” Shankweiler said. “We’ll play a sold-out show, and then afterward Eric will be in the green room on his laptop doing homework.”
Gabriel, a senior finishing his last semester at Georgetown, described his busy week of juggling classes and touring. “This past week was my last week of class ever. Marlo drove down from New York, picked me up in D.C. on Wednesday, I missed the rest of that week of class, … and then drove the rest of the way to Nashville and played a weekend of shows and got back Sunday, back for finals,” Gabriel said. The quick turnaround from place to place wasn’t the only challenge described by the band members. Stewart-Frommer explained how physical performing can be for her as a singer and the challenge posed by illness on the road. “I think after COVID our immune systems are so shot — this has been our sickest tour of all time,” Stewart-Frommer said. “We’ve all had sinus infections. I was singing through bronchitis for two months.” Stewart-Frommer described touring as “a game of endurance” to get her homework done, play the shows and get enough sleep, but she said touring has been a positive experience, especially meeting their fans.
“It’s been incredible,” StewartFrommer said. “For the most part, our fans are our age. And they’re so fun. We love hanging out with them.” Throughout the entire conversation, there was a sense that Melt’s dedication and care for their fans is truly one of their distinguishing qualities. Shankweiler reminisced during the interview about their most recent weekend of shows. “People are really there to hear the songs, because we’re so far from home and they’re singing every word to our debut EP which we’ve never performed live before,” Shankweiler said. “People have been listening to this music potentially for four years, waiting for us to come, and we’ve never been here.” Stewart-Frommer continued to describe how validating the tour had been given the departure in tone and style of their debut EP from their previous singles. “I think it’s given us a lot of affirmation,” Stewart-Frommer said. “These people come up to us after shows who’ve been listening since the very beginning or heard of us two months ago, and it feels good to know that
Dressember explains their choice of dress as their signature: “The dress is our uniform, the flag of our movement. Dressember is an opportunity to reclaim and reappropriate the dress as a symbol of freedom and power; a flag for the inherent dignity of all people.” To accommodate more people, participants in Dressember can choose to wear the signature dress or a tie. Participants have the freedom to make the Style Challenge their own by using things that they already have in their closet. While the visibility of the Style Challenge on social media is certainly an important aspect of Dressember for raising awareness of human trafficking, Dressember also uses the challenge to raise money for the cause. It does so in a variety of ways. People who want to help can become an advocate to raise money from others, make a donation directly to Dressember or one of their advocates, dedicate an event like a birthday or wedding so that guests give to the cause or set up a monthly giving
plan. While it may be too late to join the fight as an advocate for all of the 31 days of December this year, it is certainly still possible to consider donating. The funds that Dressember raises are distributed across Dressember’s network of anti-trafficking organizations that have applied and been vetted by Dressember’s Grant Advisory Committee. Dressember recognizes the complicated and intricate nature of the issue of human trafficking, so they work to fight it according to four pillars: advocacy, prevention, intervention and survivor empowerment. The first pillar, advocacy, recognizes that to achieve change, it is necessary to mobilize people by making them aware of the issue. Some tangible ways Dressember moves towards this goal is by, “sharing reliable information, mobilizing the public, using survivor-informed language and verbiage, [providing education] on conscious consumerism, [and] offering tangible action steps.”
see MELT, page 6
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Melt members Veronica Stewart-Frommer and Eric Gabriel perform at Brighton Music Hall.
Dressember combats human trafficking through fashion, individual advocacy and fundraising by Colette Smith
Assistant Arts Editor
Content warning: This article discusses human trafficking. The Dressember Foundation advocates for everyone to wear a dress or tie for the 30 days of December to fight for an end to human trafficking. Even though this might sound strange, the organization says it has raised over $13 million toward the cause since 2013. Clearly, they are onto something. Dressember started in 2009 when founder Blythe Hill started to learn more about the horrors of human trafficking but felt helpless to stop it. From the time Hill started hearing about human trafficking, it took her a few years to determine her place in the fight against it. Eventually, she decided to wear a dress every day of December. This one-person stand then turned into an international protest that had 1,233 participants in 2013 and has blossomed into over 32,000 participants since then. Though not necessarily intuitive,
Next, Dressember approaches the prevention pillar by finding what makes groups more at risk to trafficking and then attempting to change systems to reduce their vulnerability, including supporting foster youth and LGBTQ+ youth, addressing poverty and racism, and discussing exploitative supply chains. As a part of this plank, Dressember has partnered with organizations including The Freedom Story, Pathfinders and youthSpark. The following pillar, the intervention pillar, works with local network leaders and tries to, “remove child victims of trafficking from exploitative situations, as well as providing support and exit pathways for trafficked adults.” Dressember goes about this through training front-line workers to be more capable of identifying trafficking red flags, implementing trauma support for trafficking victims and aiding victims of OSEC, or Online Exploitation of Children. Partner organizations that support this cause include Truckers
Against Trafficking, the Human Trafficking Report and Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking. The final pillar, survivor empowerment, is all about “sustained liberation” for trafficking survivors through offerings like housing, group therapy, job training, educational programs and legal support. Partner organizations that support survivor empowerment include 10 Thousand Windows, the Starfish Project, Love146 and Freedom Network USA. The beauty of Dressember is not that it will necessarily end the $150 billion human trafficking industry. Instead, it is a collaboration of people coming together in the simple challenge to take a stand against this dire issue in a way that is possible for them. The success of Dressember is in the fact that it is easy for people to get involved and help, which is why it has been able to raise $13 million and recruit over 30,000 people to fundraise since 2013 — all to help put an end to human trafficking.
TRASHING ONE EGG WASTES 55 GALLONS OF WATER
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THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Pop Culture | Tuesday, December 14, 2021
Raga Chilakamarri On Demand
Finales, farewells and the future — it’s not goodbye, it’s see you later
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inter is not just coming, winter is here. Well, in its own fluctuating New England under global warming and pre-solstice sort of way. The roads are salted, the wind tunnels are biting and my corduroy Uniqlo jacket is decreasing in utility, no matter how many long sleeves I layer underneath. In other words, the semester is ending and so too is our time together. Writing this column has grown into a weekly reflective experience for me, a chance to revisit my TV track history with a new attentiveness and desire to extrapolate the most meaningful, if niche, themes. Reviewing these shows has also brought me back to fond memories, like prolonged 3 a.m. discussions analyzing Tyrion’s character arc on “Game of Thrones” (2011–2019) and rather heated debates over whether “Friends” (1994– 2004) is funny or not. Sharing television shows is honestly a good chunk of my love language — even if the recipients would rather tune me out (everlasting love to my friends, without whom this column would not exist). This past week has felt like a season finale, for me especially. I’ve been main-character walking through campus, with Adele on repeat, trying to soak in my last glimpses of Tufts before I head abroad in the spring. I’m feeling the full force of pre-departure nostalgia, and it’s not helping that what feels like every dance group on campus has performed this weekend, making me literally tear up in Cohen Auditorium. Like the end of all good things, a series finale is always a sentimental experience. We are often left either comforted by a conclusion ambiguous enough to imply our protagonist will be just fine, or left stewing in an unsatisfied wrap-up of plot points. In my favorite show, which is “Halt and Catch Fire” (2014–2017) as I’ve repeated many times, the finale offers a beautiful nod toward the infinite possibilities that the future holds. So, I’d like to leave you with a similar excitement for the unknown: the newest additions to my Want-To-Watch list (plus a first impression synopsis based on the trailers). From Kyle: “Ted Lasso” (2020–): A comedy with heartwarming sports-drama vibes starring a very “American” Jason Sudeikis — boasting a mustache and a thick Southern accent — as a newly arrived “football” coach in England. From Nyssa: “Only Murders in the Building” (2021–): Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short play an eccentric trio of apartment residents who unravel a murder mystery, in this comedy series reminiscent of “Knives Out” (2019). From Anna: “The Maid” (2021–): A moving yet devastating story of resilience about a young single mother, portrayed by the alluring Margaret Qualley, struggling to make ends meet. And with that, I will extend to you, dear reader, the same comforting cliché I promised my senior friends: this is not a goodbye, this is a see you later. Raga Chilakamarri is a junior studying English and economics. Raga can be reached at raga.chilakamarri@tufts.edu.
tuftsdaily.com
Melt gives a spectacular concert, catches up with the Daily MELT
continued from page 5 those people are down for what we’re doing even if it kind of spans genres.” Gabriel adds that while the tour has been a learning experience, he appreciates exploring new cities and meeting new people. “The whole tour has been such a whirlwind,” Gabriel concluded. “I think we’ve all just been feeling so, so grateful that we can go to these places, go to new cities that none of us have ever been or had any connection to, and play new music together … We all just feel a lot of gratitude. It’s really special.” Melt described one of the moments on tour which shocked them the most: a show which they opened in Hamilton, Ohio for a Bruno Mars tribute band called Uptown Funk. They hadn’t expected much going into it, but Stewart-Frommer said it was their biggest show on the tour. She retold how she “was in the crowd chatting with some woman and she was like, the entire town comes out and just treats it like Bruno Mars is here. We had a full, beautiful vista of, like, 3,000 people on this lawn.” Shankweiler laughed, saying, “it was the most fun I’ve ever had.”
That sense of wonder and pure excitement came across during their performance at Brighton Music Hall on Friday. During the concert, the genuine amazement and joy on the band members’ faces was striking. As Melt played one of their softer songs, “West Side Highway” (2021), the crowd was enthralled. They sang along in an air of heartfelt nostalgia while Melt transitioned into “Inside” (2017), which immediately shifted the energy and reconciled the audience with a very evident truth: Melt is an amazing band to watch live. Watching Melt perform truly reminds you why live music is so special. From Shankweiler’s impressive guitar solos on “Inside” and “Hours” (2021), this author’s personal favorite, to the perfect opposition of Gabriel’s and Stewart-Frommer’s voices harmonizing together, the concert exemplified the power and energy the band possesses. Totally devoid of ego, awash in charisma, Melt is all about the music, and they do it well. Like, really well. The horns were incredible: rhythmically airtight and charismatic in their solos. Gabriel’s fluid keyboard synths melded with masterful
bass lines and a driving drum kit to create something truly unique. The pull of tracks like “Don’t Want Me” (2021) was gravitational as StewartFrommer, space buns and all, delivered out-of-this world vocals. Her personality kept the audience engaged, but it was her powerful and profound voice which enchanted them. Melt was confident but real. There was a focus on the music and connecting to the audience through the music, which paid off. Their show at Brighton Music Hall was likely one of the best this author has seen, and it makes their fans hopeful for new music and new concert dates after this tour comes to an end. Stewart-Frommer admitted that about a quarter of their set list for this tour was unreleased music, so there’s definitely an idea that there could be something new dropping soon. “We’re going to record an album — inevitably,” Shankweiler said. Until then, fans will just have to wait, but one thing is at least clear: the fans will come. Melt is electric and memorable in a way that few other artists of their stature can claim to be, and their performance at Brighton Music Hall reflected that genuine talent.
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Tuesday, December 14, 2021 | FUN & GAMES | THE TUFTS DAILY
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F A& rG t s & P o p C u lt u r e
LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY
Alex (to Sam): “I think you were my Eco Rep last year. Yeah, I hated you.”
FUN & GAMES
SUDOKU
ALIEN DISCOVERS HOLIDAY LIGHTING
Difficulty Level: Staying awake on the SMFA shuttle.
By Maddie Pero
Friday’s Solutions
SEARCHING FOR HEADLINES...
CROSSWORD
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8 Tuesday, December 14, 2021
Opinion
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VIEWPOINT
The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell offers hope of delayed justice for many victims by Gian Luca Di Lenardo Contributing Writer
Content warning: This article mentions sexual abuse and self-harm. Justice delayed is justice denied. For the victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and his romantic partner turned associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, this maxim expresses a painful reality. However, after countless years of trials and depositions, the chance for a long delayed justice may have finally arrived. On Nov. 30, betraying no sign of emotion, Ghislaine Maxwell marched defiantly into the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in Manhattan to begin her trial. She stands accused of six criminal counts in her indictment ranging from conspiracy to entice minors to engage in illegal sex acts to perjury. The fall of Maxwell — who was once regarded as the epitome of an Oxford-educated, high-minded British socialite — could not have been more stunning. The names implicated in her and Epstein’s sexual enterprise run vast in both number and scope, as a number of well-known individuals have been accused of having flown on Epstein’s private plane notoriously called the “Lolita Express.” This list of names includes powerful politicians such as former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, Prince Andrew and celebrities such as Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker. The jury in the Maxwell trial must decide how integral
Maxwell was to Epstein’s sexual enterprise. Was Maxwell merely an unknowing employee beholden to the whims of Epstein, or was she a master manipulator who was proactive in her efforts to procure underage girls for Epstein? Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell met in New York after the death of her father, powerful publisher Robert Maxwell, in 1991. What began as a romantic relationship quickly turned into a businesslike rapport between the two. Beginning in 1994, in what would become a wellworn pattern, Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly began to lure in young girls for Epstein. Maxwell would approach girls as young as 14 with the assurance and charisma of a middle-aged woman. She would then groom the girls — taking them on shopping trips or going with them to movie theaters. Once Maxwell felt that she had built sufficient rapport with the girls, she would then bring them to Epstein, where they would be forced into providing sexual favors for him and his powerful, well-connected friends. Annie Farmer, one of the victims who testified in court, described meeting Epstein on a trip to New York City to visit her sister. She initially described Epstein, who later invited her to New Mexico where she was falsely told she would be joined by other students, as “friendly and down to earth.” While Farmer, at first, had felt distressed by Epstein’s inappropriate behavior, she explained that Maxwell’s presence had made her feel more comfortable until
her visit to New Mexico. While there, Maxwell used the trust she had built with Ms. Farmer to normalize a nonconsensual sexual relationship between Farmer and Epstein. Another victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, described her encounter with Maxwell while working at Mar-a-Lago when she was only 16 years old. Giuffre described Maxwell as ostensibly being a nice woman and that she gave her the first cell phone she ever had. Maxwell promised Giuffre glamorous job opportunities as a massage therapist and even went so far as to meet Giuffre’s father, promising him that she would take good care of his daughter. Giuffre was then taken to Epstein’s Palm Beach residence, where she was sexually abused. Maxwell’s once stable position began to spiral when Giuffre filed a defamation lawsuit against her in 2015 after Maxwell claimed that Giuffre’s claims of sexual abuse were lies. The case was eventually settled with no admission of wrongdoing on Maxwell’s part. However, Maxwell was not able to evade justice forever. In July 2020, Maxwell was arrested at her luxurious mansion in Bradford, New Hampshire and is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn without bail where she awaits the conclusion of her trial. The picture of Ghislaine Maxwell, painted by her victims, is one of a tried-and-true conspirator who used her warm and friendly demeanor to attract and manipulate young girls into
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Ghislaine Maxwell is pictured. exploitative and sexually abusive relationships with influential individuals. Maxwell’s involvement in Epstein’s affairs was necessary for the abuse to continue and arguably could not have occurred without it. It is unconscionable that it took almost 30 years for the victims of Maxwell’s abuse to have their day in court. This reflects a larger issue in how cases like this one can often get caught up in legal bureaucracy at the expense of timely justice for the victims.
In these cases of abuse and sexual exploitation, it is imperative that deeper investigations are carried out swiftly and that all abusers are held accountable. For the women testifying against Maxwell in this particular case, the justice they may receive will never be proportional to the crimes that were committed against them. Nonetheless, this trial has the potential to vindicate their claims and encourage more women to come forward with their stories.
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Tuesday, December 14,14, 2021 | Opinion Tuesday, December 2021 | SPORTS| |THE THETUFTS TUFTSDAILY DAILY
Jumbos fall to 1–7–1 HOCKEY
continued from back the first. Tufts came out of the break with a good sequence of play, but quickly lost steam. Bowdoin picked up momentum and was able to put lots of shots on the Tufts goal. Sophomore goalie Ryan Welch was vital in keeping the score at 2–1. “He [Welch] played an unbelievable game and really stepped up and took ahold of the moment,” Scott said. Welch made multiple saves on breakaways from the Polar Bears’, and effectively kept the Jumbos in the game. Bowdoin maintained their momentum heading into the third period and found themselves outnumbering the Jumbos at the back. In an effort to be more aggressive, Tufts began to send up their defenders into the attacking zone, but they were frequently getting caught out and left Welch vulnerable. Welch couldn’t keep out the Polar Bears relentless attack indefinitely, as they scored to tie the game with 10 minutes left to play in regulation. The two teams remained tied through the end of the third period, and the game was sent into overtime. In the
dying minutes of the third period, Tufts was called for a penalty for hitting from behind, and Bowdoin entered overtime with a four on three power play advantage. Tufts managed to survive the power play without surrendering a goal, but Bowdoin continued the trend from the third period and put high pressure on the Jumbos’ defense. The pressure paid off as Bowdoin scored from the right flank to win the game 3–2. In the Colby game, the play was very one-sided. Tufts struggled to generate any offense throughout the game. “We didn’t really show up, and we didn’t really play our best game,” Cam Newton said. In the first period, the Jumbos gave up a penalty less than a minute into the game. Colby capitalized on the power play, scoring within the same minute later to take the lead 1–0. The Jumbos were then able to hold the Mules off until the end of the first period, when, with 4 minutes to play, Colby found the back of the net again to make the score 2–0. The Jumbos only managed four shots throughout the first period. In the second period, the play evened out a little bit more, as the Jumbos saw
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Matt Goguen Keeping up with the 617 chances on a power play and a breakaway right at the end of the period. The Colby goalie managed to keep both attempts out to sustain the shutout of the Jumbos. Senior goalie Josh Sarlo kept Tufts in the game throughout the second period, making 17 saves to keep the score 2–0. Heading into the third period, the Jumbos were still hanging in the game only two goals down. However, the Mules quickly quashed those hopes, as they scored a shorthanded goal only three minutes into the period to make it 3–0. Colby scored once more towards the end of the third period to make the final score 4–0, putting the finishing touches on a shutout against the Jumbos. “Our effort was not where it needed to be as a whole, and that was a game we were looking to forget about and move on,” senior forward Angus Scott said. The Jumbos will look to regroup and sort out some of the issues they have been facing heading into winter break. “We have a lot of talent, and we think we really are going to come out really well after break, we just have to fix some of the little things,” Newton said.
The Tufts Daily Alumni Advisory Council is pleased to announce the first in a series of regional alumni events. Our first meetup will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022 at 6 p.m. in New York City. Daily alumni will be gathering at Logan’s Run, which is located at 375a Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn. Logan’s Run requires proof of vaccination and a photo ID. All Tufts Daily alumni and current students are welcome! RSVPs are not required, but if you do expect to come, it’d help us to have a head count, so please email Alumni Council Chair Maureen O’Brien Klautky at moklautky@ gmail.com. Then bring your vaccination card, your war stories and even your resume, if you want to do some networking, and when you get there just ask for Bret Thorn or Jonathan Larsen or the Tufts Daily Alumni meetup. The Tufts Daily Alumni Advisory Council is interested in creating events wherever Daily alumni live and work. We’re focusing initial efforts on large metro areas such as New York, D.C. and Boston, but we want to hear from you wherever you are about holding one near you! You can also find us on Facebook.
A playoff team
A
s New England Patriots fans, we truly do not recognize the magnitude of greatness that this franchise has sustained over the past two decades. Since 2000, the team has been to nine Super Bowls and has won six Lombardi Trophies; they’ve missed the playoffs only four times in that span and have produced some of the greatest seasons in NFL history. Even with Tom Brady’s upsetting departure from the Patriots to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the former team strategically retained most of its core and treated the 2020 season as a re-tooling year to develop a few young prospects. After drafting quarterback Mac Jones 15th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, Bill Belichick slowly developed a talented and experienced depth chart. Free agent additions Matthew Judon and Hunter Henry excelled in the offseason and only offered more promise for this revamped Patriots team. Now, with four games remaining in the season, the Patriots lead the AFC East at 9–4 and hold the AFC’s first overall seed. This recent surge in the standings did not seem evident for this Patriots squad; through the first six weeks the Patriots were 2–4 with wins over the New York Jets and Houston Texans — two teams fighting over the first overall pick in 2022. Although the Patriots kept pace in their four losses, poor game management and head-scratching mistakes doomed this team in September. To add more salt onto the wound, the mistakes that the Patriots committed were uncharacteristic of the team and reminded this fanbase of the dreadful 2020 season. The only bright spot from that six-game stretch was the development of rookie Mac Jones, who seemed to be the perfect fit for this Patriots system. With various absences to the offensive line and secondary, many Patriots fans lost hope and blamed the coaching staff for the team’s woes. While Josh McDaniels and Bill Belichick deserve some of the blame for the slow start, the roster was simply underperforming; most players were still adjusting to the playbook and many veterans were committing horrific mistakes on both sides of the ball. However, after a “get-right” game against the New York Jets in Week 7, the teachings that the Patriots’ brass instilled into the roster during the offseason began to appear. The uncharacteristic miscues diminished to a minimum. Mac Jones began to develop solid relationships with the Patriots receivers, and the secondary started to suffocate opposing quarterbacks. After winning seven straight games, the Patriots have a 98.9% chance of making the playoffs, according to ESPN’s Football Power Index. Unlike the 2020 Patriots, this roster does not need to be perfect to squeak out victories. Mac Jones has had his fair share of his “Welcome to the NFL” moments, but he does the little things to keep this team afloat. With an upcoming game against the Indianapolis Colts, the 2021 Patriots have solidified themselves as a playoff contender. It’s foolish to consider this team having a possibility to hoist the Lombardi Trophy come February, but the thought isn’t out of the question. This team is rolling on all sides of the football right now. If they can continue their hot streak for the next month, never say never. Matt Goguen is a junior studying biopsychology. Matt can be reached at matthew. goguen@tufts.edu.
10 Tuesday, December 14, 2021
SPORTS
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Ice hockey loses two conference games
COURTESY KRIS DUFOUR
Williams College defeats Tufts hockey 4–5 on Saturday, Dec. 4. by Arielle Weinstein Contributing Writer
This past weekend, Tufts ice hockey team was swept in the two NESCAC games they played. In Friday night’s match against the Colby Mules, the Jumbos fell 4–0. In Saturday’s game, they lost 3–2 in overtime to the Bowdoin Polar Bears. Tufts’ record now sits at 1–7–1 overall and 1–4–1 in the NESCAC.
Henry Gorelik The End Around
Way too early look at the 2022 coaching carousel
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t is only Week 14, but reports of Urban Meyer-created dysfunction in Jacksonville and speculation about offensive-wonderkid Joe Brady’s next destination has already begun to fuel the 2022 NFL coaching carousel. While teams will likely have household names such as Eric Bieniemy, Brian Daboll and Todd Bowles at the top of their lists, I am going to dive into some of the underrated head coaching candidates and their best fits around the NFL. Byron Leftwich, Tampa Bay Buccaneers Offensive Coordinator Best Fit: Jacksonville Jaguars Bruce Arians was so impressed by Byron Leftwich
Entering the weekend, the Jumbos were coming off of a mildly successful previous series in which they beat Middlebury 3–2 and lost to Williams 5–4. The Jumbos were fifth in the NESCAC standings and looked to improve upon their position in conference play. During these past two games, the Jumbos changed their lineup, hoping to generate more offense. With Bowdoin’s record at 0–4–1,
Tufts was hoping to get another conference win on the board. The changes quickly paid off, as the Jumbos maintained possession of the puck for the majority of the opening minutes of the game. Tufts was able to get early shots on goal and test the Bowdoin goalkeeper. With 10:30 left in the first period, sophomore defender Cam Newton flipped the puck from the right side towards the goal to
bring the score to 1–0 in favor of Tufts. The Jumbos continued the pressure on the Bowdoin defense and earned a power play with seven minutes left in the period. Following a faceoff, senior Angus Scott fired the puck into the roof of the Bowdoin net to double the Jumbos’ lead. It was his fifth goal of the year, and puts him among the top ten players to score the most points this season in the NESCAC. Although Tufts was
dominating control of the puck, with just over a minute left in the period Bowdoin earned a power play and was able to capitalize to make the score 2–1. The second period told a drastically different story than the first. Tufts came out of the break with a good sequence of play but quickly lost steam. Bowdoin picked up momentum and was
in their time with the Cardinals that he brought the young-offensive mind with him when he was hired to be the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. While many have simplified the Buccaneers’ offensive success to Tom Brady’s greatness plugged into Arians’ system, Leftwich is the one who actually calls plays and has a lot of input in play design too. In addition to leading a Super Bowl-winning offense, Leftwich, in his first season as an offensive coordinator, helped Jameis Winston have a season in which he threw for 5,000 yards and 33 touchdowns. It is confusing why Leftwich has not yet gotten an opportunity to be a head coach in the NFL and, in a lot of ways, resembles the league’s discriminatory treatment of Chiefs Offensive Coordinator Eric Bienemy. Leftwich was a quarterback in his playing days and was the 7th player drafted in the first round and picked by the Jaguars in 2003, making a reunion with Jacksonville so fitting. Leftwich is the perfect candidate to develop Trevor Lawrence and help the Jaguars start over (again) after the Urban Meyer debacle.
Nathaniel Hackett, Green Bay Packers Offensive Coordinator Best Fit: Las Vegas Raiders Nathaniel Hackett does not fit the prototype of young, innovative Sean McVay- and Kliff Kingsbury-looking offensive coordinator; he is one of the best offensive minds in the NFL today. Similar to Leftwich, he has been underrated due to the assumption that Green Bay’s offensive success is due to partnership between Head Coach Matt LaFleur and Aaron Rodgers. The reality is that Hackett is loved within the Packers’ organization, as Rodgers has said that, “No one brings me more joy [than Hackett].” Similarly, left-Tackle David Bakhtiari said that, “There has never been a day where I have not seen him come in without greater energy and enthusiasm. He’s literally a walking culture.” These are two pretty strong endorsements from two of the league’s top players. In addition to his stellar reputation in Green Bay, Hackett has revamped the offenses in his previous stops, including Syracuse University, the Buffalo Bills and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
His work in Jacksonville is particularly remarkable, as he led an offense highlighted by Blake Bortles and a receiving core of Keelan Cole, Marqise Lee and Dede Westbrook to the AFC Championship in the 2017–2018 season. I see Hackett as a great fit for the Las Vegas Raiders, a franchise that is in desperate need of a face-lift after the Jon Gruden and Henry Rugg III’s incidents this season. Furthermore, his offensive accent will serve as a nice complement to the defensive leadership provided by Gus Bradley. Kellen Moore, Dallas Cowboys Offensive Coordinator Best Fit: Chicago Bears Kellen Moore is the token young and innovative offensive tactician amongst this group of head coaching candidates. With experience as a quarterback at Boise State University and the NFL, Moore has quickly become recognized as a rising star within NFL coaching circles. At the ripe age of 32, this is the kind of candidate you would rather be a year early on rather than being a year too late and missing out. While it
is true that he is endowed with an extremely talented group of offensive skill players in Dallas, he has definitely maximized their abilities in a creative and dynamic offense. Moore crafted an offense that helped backup quarter-back Cooper Rush take down the Vikings in Week 8 and created a game plan that allowed Dak Prescott to throw for 375 yards on Thanksgiving. Moore has crafted a distinct role for Tony Pollard this season, who is beginning to resemble a similar skillset as Austin Ekeler. There is a reason why Moore was one of the few people retained during the Cowboys’ transition from the Jason Garrett to the Mike McCarthy regime. I think Moore would be a great fit for the Chicago Bears, where he could develop Justin Fields to his full potential. I also see Moore and young Defensive Coordinator Sean Desai as a strong partnership that could bring the Bears franchise back to relevance.
see HOCKEY, page 9
Henry Gorelik is a junior studying international relations. Henry can be reached at henry. gorelik@tufts.edu
