The Tufts Daily - Friday, February 4, 2022

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Friday, February 4, 2022

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Proposed tenants’ rights legislation would mitigate housing affordability crisis in Somerville

by Madeline Wilson Assistant News Editor

State Representative Erika Uyterhoeven of Somerville recently petitioned Bill H.4208 in a joint committee in the Massachusetts General Court.

The bill, one of many recent Tenants’ Opportunity to Purchase Acts, would permit Somerville to create a program where tenants of a property would be given the chance to purchase it jointly before it is put on the market.

Uyterhoeven’s petition comes after an earlier version of the bill previously passed through both chambers but was vetoed

by Governor Baker.

TOPA legislation is becoming more and more popular among tenants’ rights activists and lawmakers concerned with the housing affordability crisis. As housing prices continue to rise in Somerville and cities around the United States, it has become more and more difficult for residents to both obtain affordable housing and to avoid eviction.

According to Uyterhoeven, the bill is a local option, which

means that it must pass through the state legislature for local administrations like Somerville to have the choice and ability to enact it.

City Councilor Ben EwenCampen, who represents Ward 3 of Somerville, described how the housing affordability crisis specifically affects Somerville, especially communities of working-class, immigrant and senior residents.

“The large majority of people who live in Somerville are renters,” Ewen-Campen said.

“There are effectively zero working class people or families who are able to buy a home in Somerville.”

Sam LaTronica, real estate director at the Somerville Community Corporation, also noted that housing inaccessibility and gentrification disproportionately affect communities of color in Somerville.

“As this continues and existing triple-deckers are chopped up and converted into condos, the folks who are buying those condos are by and large affluent white folks, and communities

IAN LAU / THE TUFTS DAILY

A row of Somerville houses are pictured on Feb. 1. of color have fewer and fewer options,” he said.

Legislation such as TOPA seeks to give tenants first priority in purchasing the property they inhabit in case their landlord tries to sell it. TOPA laws would

allow tenants to work with a third-party organization to help with financing.

Uyterhoeven also criticized real estate speculation as it impacts housing affordability. Many properties are being

purchased by investors, causing surges in housing prices and large numbers of evictions. “[Investors] are not part of … why people choose to settle and see TOPA, page 2

Tufts alum Niki Thran runs for open Vermont Senate seat

Baker-Polito administration announces emergency orders to mitigate hospital staffing shortages

Assistant News Editor

News Editor

by Ariana Phillips

Tufts alum and emergency room doctor Niki Thran formally announced her candidacy in the Vermont Senate race on Jan. 16. Thran is entering the race to replace Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) who is retiring after eight terms.

Thran, who earned her bachelor’s degree from Tufts and her doctor of medicine degree from Vanderbilt, has spent 30 years of her life delivering care in emergency rooms. Since moving to Vermont in 2013, Thran has worked as an emergency physician at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph, Vt. In her campaign announcement speech, Thran noted that she has seen a steady decline in the United States health care system, which worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“For the first time in 30 years, I have witnessed hospitals like mine implementing emergency standards of care that determine

who will live and who will die,” Thran said in her speech.

Thran believes that state reciprocity, which would allow medical personnel to be sent where they are most needed, could help solve the shortage of health care providers. If elected, she would introduce a bill for national licensing of all health care professionals, she said.

Much of her platform focuses on the establishment of an accessible and affordable health care system that invests in rural communities.

Anna Cornish, former treasurer of Tufts Democrats and a Vermont resident, hopes that Thran’s campaign will spark a larger conversation about the health care system.

“It was great to see that she does support a national health care system,” Cornish, a senior, told the Daily. “I thought it was interesting that she didn’t name support for Medicare for All.” Although Thran’s platform does not specifically endorse see THRAN, page 2

by Rebecca Barker

The Baker-Polito administration announced a series of emergency orders to address waning hospital care capacity on Jan. 14, following a surge of COVID-19 cases statewide. The measures focus on reducing unnecessary emergency room visits and increasing the flexibility of hospital workers who have been subject to staffing shortages, given the rapid escalation of cases.

The emergency orders include the ability for qualified physician assistants to practice independently without the supervision of other physicians and “internal moonlighting,” a measure that allows physicians to provide care for patients “outside of their specialized training program,” according to a press release from the Baker-Polito administration.

“These actions align with or expand upon emergency public health orders issued since March 2020,” the press release said.

Additional measures include increasing the flexibility of staff transfers, lessening staffing requirements for out-of-hospital dialysis centers and expediting the licensure of foreign-trained physicians.

Jeremy Lechan, media relations manager for Tufts Medical Center, explained that Governor Baker’s emergency orders are not likely to have a significant impact on Tufts physicians.

“We are pleased that new physicians can be credentialed a little quicker, but we don’t expect to see major changes,” Lechan wrote in an email to The Tufts Daily.

Lechan noted that some of the measures will increase the ability to onboard staff quickly, which will assist Tufts Medical Center in addressing any potential staff shortages. He said that other emergency actions, such as the ability for PAs to practice independently, will not yield major changes.

“This emergency order is really meant more for PAs at pharmacies or small, independent clinics in the community, where

SPORTS / back

FEATURES / page 3

ARTS / page 4

Tufts celebrate life of “Rocky” Carzo

Students recreate Lunar New Year traditions at Tufts

Suburban thriller trope fears its demise

physicians don’t need to be on site and PAs often work independently,” Lechan wrote. “The majority of our 150 PAs work in highly complex areas — such as in the Neuro-critical care unit or the Cardiothoracic unit — where they are supervised by physicians. As a result, we expect very little change or impact on acute care medical centers like Tufts [Medical Center].”

Lechan mentioned that other orders, such as allowing “internal moonlighting,” could have a positive effect on the center.

“We will permit fellows with full medical licenses to sign up as attending physicians and moonlight within our organization, which will help expand our internal medicine and nighttime Medical ICU services,” Lechan wrote.

Lisa LaPoint, assistant director of media relations for the Tufts University School of Medicine, said that the school also has not yet experienced changes due to the emergency orders. see HOSPITAL, page 2 NEWS

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Friday, February 4, 2022

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Proposed bill aims to tackle housing affordability crisis in Somerville, give tenants more opportunities to buy TOPA

continued from page 1 live in Somerville,” Uyterhoeven said. “They are not part of building that community, and that is why people want to come live here and stay here. And yet they are profiting off of it.”

Alongside TOPA legislation, Ewen-Campen noted the importance of other housing affordability policies being introduced, including enforcing a transfer fee, which takes funds from large real estate sales and puts them towards affordable housing.

“If you look at the price of housing in Somerville, it goes up a percent almost every month for the past several years,” he said.

“So all we’re asking is that some very small amount of this enormous value that is pouring into our real estate market go towards helping people who are facing displacement.”

TOPA legislation also comes alongside other work that Somerville has done to increase housing affordability, such as the SCC’s 100 Homes project.

The program purchases properties throughout Somerville and utilizes state funds to maintain an affordable rent for ten-

ants. 103 properties have been purchased since the project’s inception.

“It is a city effort to preserve some of the naturally-existing, naturally-occurring affordable housing stock in Somerville,” LaTronica said. “Every time a property changes hands, it gets more expensive … we need folks who own property to realize if you’re going to sell it for this high amount, it won’t be affordable anymore.”

Ewen-Campen also highlighted the impact that the upcoming MBTA Green Line Extension would have on housing affordability in Somerville.

The Green Line Extension plans to provide improved infrastructure, access to employment and access to public transportation to the Greater Boston area.

Ewen-Campen argues that this development comes at a cost to housing affordability.

“It’s this huge benefit for the city that we’re getting the Green Line,” he said. “But because we don’t have meaningful tenant protections, we don’t have rent stabilization — it’s caused this gigantic run on real estate anywhere near the Green Line

because you can either rent or sell apartments or houses for a lot more.”

Both Ewen-Campen and Uyterhoeven cited misinformation as a barrier to TOPA and other housing affordability legislation.

“We hear a lot of fearmongering from the real estate industry,” Ewen-Campen said. “At the local level, when we were talking about the transfer fee, there was a really unfortunate misinformation campaign from the local developer community, where they were basically lying and spreading misinformation — particularly to a lot of senior citizens — about what this legislation would mean.”

Uyterhoeven emphasized that TOPA legislation is aimed at targeting more large-scale property transfers and would likely not impact the sale of single-family homes or property owners with fewer than seven units.

“This is really about leveling the playing field between speculators and tenants, and frankly, even small homeowners and property owners,” she said.

LaTronica also noted that Tufts students should be aware

of their role as Somerville community members and how they can impact the real estate economy.

“I think there can often be a tension between students and existing communities,” he said.

“Students live in a community for a short time, and people see them as not invested, as transient, as disrespectful to the community … just being aware of that and doing what you can to carve out space and maintain space for existing longtime community members.”

Uyterhoeven and EwenCampen recommended that those interested in joining the movement for accessible housing should look into resources such as Homes for All or City Life/Vida Urbana, community activist groups that advocate for housing and tenants’ rights.

“Because this requires action across the state, we really need to build up a coalition across the entire state,” Ewen-Campen said. “These are issues that I think affect communities across the entire state. It’s just a matter of building political power and support.”

Thran advocates overhaul of U.S. health care system THRAN

continued from page 1 Medicare for All, Cornish believes Thran’s health care plan would represent a vast improvement from the current U.S health care system.

“According to the U.S. Census, an estimated 28 million Americans still lacked health insurance in 2020. That is almost 80 times the entire population of Vermont—that is unacceptable,” Thran said in her campaign speech.

While Thran made clear her desire for a national health care system, Cornish and Silas Conlon, another student from Vermont, expressed that they want to hear more about Thran’s stances on private health insurance and Medicare.

Conlon, a sophomore, was surprised that Thran didn’t advocate for the abolition of private

health insurers. Conlon wonders how Thran’s stance will affect her chances of defeating Vermont’s single House representative Peter Welch, who also announced his candidacy in the race.

Both Conlon and Cornish highlighted a pattern in Vermont politics where the state’s representative steps up to fill a vacant Senate seat. Rep. Peter Welch is considered to be a favorite in the race and has already served in the Vermont Senate before, in addition to having served as Vermont’s representative since 2006.

“I feel like the way that someone could beat Peter Welch, who’s also running for the seat, is by running to the left of him because he’s a fairly establishment guy,” Conlon said.

Cornish echoed this concern, noting that Thran’s platform does not endorse the Green New

Deal, which would raise $30 million annually for climate action through taxes on the wealthy.

Welch endorsed the Green New Deal, leading Cornish to believe that Thran will need to elaborate her stances as the Democratic Primary on Aug. 9 gets closer.

In addition, Welch exceeds Thran not only in name recognition but in campaign funds. As of Dec. 1, Welch’s House account holds over $2 million while Thran has raised only $13 thousand.

Cornish said she is interested in how Welch’s political views have evolved since he was first elected.

“I would really like to check in and see where he stands on some of these issues in 2022, versus when he was first getting elected.

And really make sure that whoever becomes senator is thoroughly vetted because it’s such a position of power,” Cornish said.

Conlon shared Cornish’s sentiment. He believes that Vermont residents will enjoy watching the competition between Thran and Welch play out.

“I think that there’s a general sense that we wish that it wasn’t a shoo-in … But the fact of the matter is, most politicians in Vermont know that it would be really hard to be around, especially because [ Welch has] a lot of money, [and] he’s been in office for so long,” Conlon said.

If Thran wins, she would be the first woman to have been elected as Vermont’s senator. Vermont has never elected a woman to either house of Congress.

“If she succeeds in getting her name out there, then that’ll be really interesting. It will show something about what Vermonters want, but it’s yet to be seen,” Conlon said.

Physician assistants permitted to work independently, outside of their specialization amid staffing shortages HOSPITAL

continued from page 1 “For MD and PA students, the School of Medicine has not seen any impact yet from last week’s emergency orders,” LaPointe wrote in an email to the Daily.

Lechan said that some of the emergency orders are expected to remain in place through March 31, although he expects the deadline will be subject to the course that COVID-19 cases take.

“Our expectations are that the state will continue to adjust the end dates depending on the current situation, as it improves

or worsens — although we are certainly hopeful that the worst is behind us,” he wrote.

Katheleen Conti, assistant director of media relations for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, explained that emergency orders will remain active until there are reasons to believe that the course of the emergency has changed.

“In general, orders will remain in place until rescinded by the Department of Public Health Commissioner or the public health emergency is terminated,” Conti wrote in an email to the Daily.

MINA TERZIOGLU/ THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts Medical Center Community Care is pictured on March 21, 2021.

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3 Friday, February 4, 2022

Food, family and community bring Tufts students together to celebrate the Lunar New Year

by Abby Stern Staff Writer

Many Tufts students celebrated the start of the Lunar New Year on Feb. 1, alongside many other Asian countries and cultures around the world.

Though not everyone in these countries celebrates the Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, many communities have adopted their own traditions. At Tufts, many students observe this holiday and celebrate based on their own unique cultural backgrounds and experiences.

Each given year typically starts with the first new moon and is associated with one of the 12 zodiac animals in the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Tiger will represent 2022.

Though some may recognize this holiday as “Chinese New Year,” many are opting to call the holiday “Lunar New Year” instead in order to acknowledge the celebration’s ties to the lunar calendar and to promote inclusivity among the different participating countries.

One such person is Elysia Chang, a junior and Malaysian American who grew up in Singapore. She is the president of the Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia Students Association.

“Lunar New Year is celebrated all across Asia in so many different countries so the term Chinese New Year is only inclusive of a very small, select population,” Chang said.

Chang celebrates Lunar New Year with traditions unique to her Malaysian heritage. When not at Tufts, Chang would celebrate the holiday with her extended family by eating a holiday meal, playing games and putting on plays to act out ancient stories.

According to Chang, food plays a big role in the holiday and many traditions revolve around items on the table.

For example, Chang traditionally eats Lo Hei, a meal made up of many different ingredients that each hold their own specific meaning. Chang explains that each ingredient is tossed into the air and the higher the food is tossed, the more good luck will be brought into the Lunar New Year.

Chang’s family also celebrate using firecrackers based on the story of Nian, a monster that would terrorize villages at the beginning of the Lunar New Year. According to the legend, the secret to scaring away the

monster was to make loud noises and to wear the color red.

At Tufts, Chang finds ways to celebrate the holiday with other members of SIMSA. “In previous years, we’ve always done it where we’ll gather on campus or off campus at a restaurant, and we try to encompass the Lo Hei aspect of it because that’s a super big part of Lunar New Year celebrations,” Chang said.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, SIMSA decided instead to host an afternoon of games, a major component of many Lunar New Year celebrations.

According to Chang, elders in the community will typically be toasted to wish them good health and in exchange, they will hand out red packets with money on Lunar New Year.

“That money is supposed to be good luck for the new year,” Chang said.

Other cultural organizations at Tufts also have celebrations for Lunar New Year. The Taiwanese Association of Students at Tufts put on a holiday event on Feb. 1 that doubled as both a night of celebration and a general interest meeting.

Katrina Ho, a junior, is one of the co-presidents of TAST. She explained that TAST’s event had the capacity to recreate the experience of a typical Lunar New Year holiday for those who celebrate it, as well as introduce the holiday to those who may not.

As a Taiwanese American, Ho has her own holiday traditions with her family. She often plays Mahjong and dice games, and looks forward to her own red envelopes as well.

Hot pot is a traditional food Ho eats on Lunar New Year, in addition to a Taiwanese street food dish called run bing.

“Sweets are also a large part of Chinese New Year, at least in our family. There’s a lot of traditional snacks that you can typically only get during the weeks building up to the Lunar New Year,”Ho said.

To Ho, Lunar New Year marks the start of new beginnings.

“At least in Taiwan, and in a lot of families, usually the day leading up to New Year’s we do a big clean up. It’s just to symbolize … leaving the negative things in the past,” Ho said.

There are many other ways students at Tufts celebrate Lunar New Year. First-year Hannah Wang is of Chinese descent, and she typically

COURTESY JASON WU

Tufts students are pictured playing mahjong during a TAST event on Feb. 1. engages in her own family traditions when she can.

“My family and I would have a lot of traditions usually around this time, just because it’s already hard celebrating it in America and being away from China. But even so, we try to do as much as we can and keep as many of the traditions alive as possible,” Wang said.

On the eve of Chinese New Year, Wang explains that her family makes a huge holiday dinner which includes noodles, fish, rice cakes and other traditional Chinese foods. According to Wang, there is a superstition that if there is leftover food after the holiday, you will have prosperity and enough food for the upcoming year.

Wang’s family also watches the Spring Festival Gala together, which is livestreamed from China and includes a variety of arts performances.

For Wang’s first year celebrating away from home, she plans to spend the day with friends, some of whom she has met through the Chinese Students Association and a Chinese class she has taken. Wang said she was able to get together with her friends on campus to wrap dumplings.

“Dumplings and noodles I think are the most popular and easy for college students to recreate on campus, just because it’s not super expensive and they store very well. You can eat them for many nights,” Wang said.

The Tufts Asian American Center is also planning an event

to tap into the energy that surrounds the new year.

Emily Ding, the assistant director of the Asian American Center, has been working on a collaboration with the SMFA in order to showcase Asian American artists and artwork.

The “Return and Renewal” art show will launch today and will be displayed in the SMFA Terrace Gallery throughout the rest of February.

According to Ding, this joint art gallery is not explicitly in honor of the Lunar New Year, since the AAC aims to be inclusive of all Asian and Asian American students, given the myriad of other cultures and traditions celebrated in Asia.

“Only a pocket of our community celebrates this holiday,” Ding said. “Which is why [the AAC doesn’t] necessarily always want to go all out for Lunar New Year and then not recognize any of the other holidays that many people celebrate throughout the year.”

Therefore, instead of making the event explicitly linked to the holiday, the gallery event aims to encourage Asian American pride while playing off of the liveliness of the festive time of year.

“We kind of just wanted to capture this kind of energy and also bring our community together,” Ding said.

Although there are many cultural differences when celebrating Lunar New Year, family is often the link among all of these traditions.

“I think the commonality oftentimes is family time or

community time … so we’re just trying to capture that community energy here at the AAC this year,” Ding said.

Wang noted that the most important part of Lunar New Year is spending time with those close to her and those who understand the holiday’s importance.

“In the U.S. it’s not … a national holiday or anything like that. So just being with the people who understand the cultural importance of New Year’s, I think that’s the most important,” Wang said.

Though many students cannot spend the holiday with their families this year, they have found comfort in fellow members of the Tufts community.

“I would definitely say that SIMSA has been a home away from home for me. And [it has] been ever since freshman year.

Like, when I got really homesick, I would come to this community,” Chang said.

Wang is grateful for the community she has found at Tufts as well.

“I feel like at Tufts, I really do have a little small community,”Wang said. “Which I really like, especially as we approach the New Year.”

Though not all could be interviewed, other student organizations on campus, such as the Vietnamese Student Club, Hong Kong Students Association and Korean Students Association may also participate in the Lunar New Year.

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Friday, February 4, 2022

Weekender: The suburban thriller genre has come crashing down

by Henry Chandonnet Assistant Arts Editor

Netflix has taken some pretty big swings and invested in a pretty wide variety of genres and subcultures. Still, the streaming service recently released content in a fairly new and ultimately consequential dimension: self-satire. Last week brought the release of “The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window” (2022), a television series farce commenting on trends in modern film. The show mocks the deeply oversaturated market for psychological thrillers surrounding white women in the suburbs who drink wine and solve crimes. The genre attempts to subvert convention: How could such twisted, heinous crimes happen in such pristine, wealthy suburbs? Though the show may be entirely too long and often disengaging, its existence in and of itself asks the broader question of origin: How did this happen? A market has to be so deeply full, so noticeably overplayed, that a big corporation like Netflix is able to mock its own role within it. In discussing more deeply the market play-byplay of this genre, one may more deeply understand the process of filmmaking and the economic feedback loops fueling it.

To start, it’s important to note that the genre itself didn’t originate in movies at all: It came from books. Unreliable, white female narrators in murder mysteries are trademark of high-profit literature. These books are read in book clubs across America, ensnaring readers from those exact same suburbs in which they take place. In fact, the book genre is so popular that it even has a specialty name for itself: “airport novels.” Think of the books that could be found front-andcenter at a Hudson Booksellers, covering up the overpriced candies and the uncomfortable neck pillows. It’s likely that the books in mind follow that similar plot structure. Likewise, the majority of films within this thriller subgenre are adapted from books. The three films of focus for this article are all similarly based on books: “Gone Girl” (2012) by Gillian Flynn, “The Girl on the Train” (2015) by Paula Hawkins and “The Woman in the Window” (2018) by A.J. Finn. Even the book genre itself

is oversaturated, with special props given to those who are able to twist the plot tropes into newer, more interesting dimensions. Think back to books like “Little Fires Everywhere” (2017)

by Celeste Ng, which centers around the subversion of that suburban thriller trope but with additional commentary on racism. Thus, the genre overflow doesn’t just affect the films themselves; they originate in their book counterparts.

This particular film market, however, began with a single film: “Gone Girl” (2014). Adapted from the bestselling Gillian Flynn novel, “Gone Girl” tells the story of Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike), a suburban writer and wife who has gone missing. Amy’s husband Nick (Ben Affleck) becomes the prime suspect for her murder, and it is revealed that Amy’s picturesque innocence may have holes within it. The film plays directly on the thriller trope — it slowly reveals Amy, the perfect and amiable wife, to be a deeply sinister individual hiding behind the facade of her perfection.

However, at the time of release, that was not a trope at all. In fact, “Gone Girl” shocked audiences in the way it subverted thriller norms at the time by focusing on a complex female lead, and for that it received widespread critical acclaim. The film racked up $369 million at the box office and served as the blueprint for a myriad of future film adaptations. In this way, “Gone Girl” truly was one of a kind.

Seeing the cash cow that “Gone Girl” was able to become, filmmakers soon began to put their full weight behind this suburban gendered thriller trope. This leads to the second film of focus, what one may call the peak of this genre’s market effectiveness: “The Girl on the Train” (2016). This film follows Rachel (Emily Blunt), a divorced alcoholic who begins to involve herself in a murder case in her ex-husband’s suburban neighborhood. As Rachel pries deeper into the community, the lives and turmoils of the neighbors begin to unravel. The film did little to reinvent the genre, using similar shocks and twists to that of previous films like “Gone Girl.

For this lack of basic innovation, the film received worse feedback, earning a 44% on Rotten Tomatoes (as opposed to “Gone Girl,” which earned itself an 87%). However, the movie was

COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The poster for “The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window” (2022) is pictured. still able to capitalize upon this rolling wave within the movie industry, earning $173 million in the box office. In this way, “The Girl on the Train” signaled the peak of the genre — though it was still able to score big among audience’s dollars, the market was full and the plots became conventionalized.

Eventually the genre’s downfall had to come, and, quite ironically, this is where Netflix comes into the picture. In 2021, Netflix released “The Woman in the Window,” starring Amy Adams as Anna Fox, a child psychologist who herself suffers from agoraphobia. This condition leaves Anna trapped within her own house, where she believes she witnesses her neighbor Alistair Russell (Gary Oldman) murder his wife, Jane Russell (Jennifer Jason Leigh). The film uses those

now-tired narratives of wealthy, white true-crime with unreliable female narrators, barely revising the plots of the previous films within the genre. Though its release on streaming doesn’t afford a comparison of box office revenue, the film clearly failed in its goal, earning itself a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes. In fact, the movie wasn’t even initially meant to be released on Netflix but was rather shoved off by original distributor 20th Century Fox. With “The Woman in the Window,” the genre had officially reached over-saturation and lost its consumer value. The market had bottomed out.

Now, just eight years after the initial release of “Gone Girl,” those who directly partook in this market fad are able to look back with parody and comedy. “The Woman in the House

Across the Street from the Girl in the Window” memorializes the genre trend that has come and gone. To have such a significant thriller trope rise so quickly and fall so hard demonstrates one way in which the movie industry functions: Someone innovates, they reap the profits and then others try and try to imitate that original source until its content has run dry. Though this is a somewhat dismal view of filmmaking, there is still a large portion of it which contains originality and nuance. And though filmmaking is ultimately a market, the disappearance of overused trends like this emphasize the industry’s changeability and capacity for growth. But still, one must ask the question: Which of your current favorite trends will be the next to face this stylistic reckoning?

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TCA’s New Year’s resolutions: Tufts should expedite path to carbon neutrality, divest from fossil fuels

by Ellie Fried The start of a new year offers space for reflection on the past year and airing of hopes for the coming year. In September, Harvard announced that it would stop investing in fossil fuels and wind down its existing investments in them. At the same time, BU announced that it would divest from fossil fuels.

The COP26 summit of October and November further emphasized the urgency of the climate crisis. In December, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu signed an ordinance requiring the City of Boston to divest from fossil fuel industries by the end of 2025. Also in December, Tufts’ Chief Investment Officer Craig W. Smith presented the Fossil Fuel Divestment and Tufts Endowment Webinar as part of the Path to Carbon Neutrality Webinar Series, organized by the Tufts Office of Sustainability.

As a new member of the student-run organization Tufts Climate Action, I am very impressed by the efforts of past student activists who, since about 2012, have pressured the administration to

divest from fossil fuels. Their efforts have led to the formation of the Responsible Investment Advisory Group, composed of trustees, faculty, staff and students. In January 2021, a year ago last month, the RIAG released a set of recommendations to the Board of Trustees.

Since these recommendations were adopted, Tufts has committed to investing $18 million in renewable energy projects and companies that provide clean technologies and services.

This is a great start.

There is great potential to positively impact the energy sector’s transition from its reliance on fossil fuels to renewables if we, as a nation, push for increased investment in renewable energy and clean technologies. Basic economic principles say that supply will intersect with demand at a point of equilibrium; by continuing to support a viable and cheaper alternative to fossil fuels by investing in renewable energy, demand for fossil fuels will decrease and the fossil fuel industries will become less profitable, thus creating an incentive for mitigating these harmful practices.

Tufts can tangibly reduce its own demand for fossil fuels by speeding up the plans to make its campuses carbon neutral.

Currently, there is a goal in place for the Medford/Somerville campus to be carbon neutral by 2050. Despite the commendable efforts, this target date is far too distant to effectively address an urgent crisis like climate change.

The deadline is already upon us, so we must act with urgency.

American University’s recent actions should serve as an example of a more adequate response to the climate crisis. In 2018, it became the first urban campus and first research university to achieve carbon neutrality. The university used a three-part strategy that involved reducing emissions, investing in renewable energy on and off campus and purchasing carbon offsets for sources of emissions that are not able to be eradicated with current technologies. In this way, investments in renewable energy and clean technologies become part of the larger goal to leverage the power of a university to do its part in tackling climate change and inspire other institutions to follow suit.

Divestment from the fossil fuels sector and investment in renewable energy and clean, ethical technologies are two sides of the same coin. On the divestment side of the coin, we talk about direct investments — direct ownership in an asset — and indirect investments — investment in a mixed asset portfolio managed by a third party.

Because of the way Tufts manages its endowment, the university is better able to control its direct holdings, which comprise 1% of Tufts’ investments. Therefore, the investment office should create a long-term goal to divest from all direct holdings in natural gas and oil by a certain date. The goal should be backed up by a detailed plan consisting of shortterm steps to reach that goal.

When the RIAG meets again in one to four years — between 2023 and 2026 — it will evaluate Tufts’ further progress toward its goals and establish next steps. Given the urgency of the climate crisis, more frequent RIAG assessments can move Tufts to make greater progress, faster. In addition, the investment office should update its dashboard with more graphs breaking down Tufts’ exposure to

natural gas and oil companies and its investments in renewable energy companies. The investment office should also post graphs showing percent returns correlated to Tufts’ portfolio exposures.

This kind of information would provide greater transparency about progress toward the RIAG’s goals and facilitate further progress by putting into perspective the opportunity for improvement.

In order to emphasize the collective sentiments of the student body on this issue, I urge readers to read TCA’s proposed Statement of Environmental Principles and sign the petition for its adoption by the university. As students, we hold collective power to encourage effective, timely actions towards mitigating the climate crisis. It is imperative that everyone in our community plays a role in advocating for a cleaner, more sustainable future for our environment. TCA welcomes any students to attend its meetings on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. in the Terrace Room.

Ellie Fried is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Ellie can be reached at ellie.fried@tufts.edu.

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Friday, February 4, 2022 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Lifelong Jumbo hero dies at age 89 CARZO

continued from page 8 hotel ballroom with his family and friends. However, retirement is not where Carzo’s relationship with Tufts ended. He continued to sit in the football offices while he wrote his book on the history of the athletics department, titled “Jumbo Footprints: A History of Tufts Athletics, 1852–1999.”

During this time, he passed along

his extensive football knowledge to the coaches that followed in his footsteps.

“He would just come and sit in our offices and just listen, talk, ask questions, make us think about things,” Civetti said. “He was so, so smart when it came to football, he just saw it in almost like a mathematical way. I will definitely miss our talks, I definitely miss that time, whether it

was about football or whether it was just about life.”

Carzo’s passion, dedication and leadership also earned him numerous awards throughout his career. Carazo was one of the inaugural winners of the National Association of College Directors of Athletics Athletic Director of the Year Award, and he was inducted as a member of the NACDA Hall

of Fame in 2000. Carazo was also inducted into the Tufts Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018, as a member of its inaugural class. He also earned the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Distinguished Amer ican Award, one of the NFF’s highest honors, in 1996. He was the 1998 recipient of the George C. Carens Award from the New

England Football Writers for his lifetime contributions.

The Tufts community will miss the physical presence of Carzo in his office in the athletic department but his wisdom, ability to bring people together and loyalty to the Brown and Blue have shaped our athletic program to what it is today and what it will continue to be far into the future.

Women’s basketball extends winning streak to five, improves to 16–2 overall

KIANA VALLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Tufts women’s basketball team faces off against Smith College on Jan. 31.

by Matt Chen Sports Editor

The No. 7 ranked Tufts women’s basketball team emerged from this past weekend’s games undefeated, extending its current win streak to five games, and its overall record to 16–2. The Jumbos picked up wins at home against Bowdoin, Colby and Smith College. Displaying a new level of cohesion, the Jumbos played unselfish basketball and followed their recipe for success. “[The team] has this understanding that the team is bigger than us as just individuals, and I feel like we really showed that this weekend,” graduate student guard and co-captain Erin Poindexter-McHan said.

Tufts kicked off the weekend defeating NESCAC rival Bowdoin 69–47 on Friday. Led by a gamehigh 19 points from PoindexterMcHan, the Jumbos shot 40.9% from beyond the arc and dished out 18 assists. Sophomore forward Maggie Russell was also a huge part of the lineup, logging an 18-point, 14-rebound double-double.

On Sunday, another NESCAC rival came into Cousens Gymnasium: Colby. The Jumbos once again reigned victorious with a score of 89–75 on Senior Day. Poindexter-McHan said that while a win on Senior Day is always special, it was extra special for her as a graduate senior.

“It made me reflect on past classes that I’ve been a part of: 2021 with Emily Briggs,

Lilly Bolen, Katie Butler and of course, Angela [Alibrandi], who’s also a grad student this year,” Poindexter-McHan said. “It also made me reflect on the seniors from two years ago whose season also got cut short during COVID … so the win was also for them.”

The Jumbos were led by firstyear guard Annika Decker, who had 18 points, three rebounds and five assists in one of the best outings of her emerging Tufts career. Tufts dominated the game statistically, shooting 50% from the field and an astonishing 66.7% from behind the arc, as well as out-rebounding Colby 40-27 and logging 22 assists.

“It’s all about reading the defense and what’s happening

in the game,” said Head Coach Jill Pace when speaking to the Jumbos’ 22 assists. “I’m just super proud of our players who are playing really unselfishly and finding that next pass.”

In the most competitive of the three games, Tufts took down non-conference foe Smith College 78–69. Led

by Russell and senior forward and co-captain Sofia Rosa’s 17 points apiece, the Jumbos used ball movement and efficient scoring to dispatch a nationally ranked opponent. In a highly competitive game, neither team was able to break away until the fourth quarter. PoindexterMcHan spoke to the importance of staying engaged and sticking to their game plan.

“Our team is really focused on winning each moment and falling back again to our scout and our game plan”, PoindexterMcHan said.

Despite success over the weekend, the Jumbos played without senior guard and co-captain Molly Ryan, who has been a crucial part of the lineup all season averaging 16.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. While the absence of Ryan is a blow to the lineup, Pace sees it as an opportunity for other players to step up.

With four regular-season games remaining until the NESCAC tournament, the Jumbos travel to Trinity tonight.

Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Sports

8 Friday, February 4, 2022

tuftsdaily.com

Former Athletic Director “Rocky” Carzo remembered for caring personality, devotion to Tufts athletics

COURTESY PAUL SWEENEY

Rocco “Rocky” Carzo is pictured during his time at Tufts.

by Ananda Kao Sports Editor

When prompted to “describe Rocky in three words,” many of his closest colleagues and friends responded without hesitation: “Passionate.” Rocco J. “Rocky” Carzo, former Tufts head football coach and athletic director, died on Jan. 16 at 89 years old.

“Rocky bled brown and blue,” Head Football Coach Jay Civetti said. “I love the passion and the care that he [had] for Tufts … He didn’t go here, but you would have thought that he did — I think he just fell in love with the place. I think it’s cool that he continued to make sure that people loved and appreciated it.”

Carzo dedicated a 33-year tenure at Tufts, starting out as the head football coach from 1966– 1973 before being appointed athletic director from 1973–1999.

However, Carzo’s reach extended well beyond the football field and his office in the athletic center.

He transformed a languishing Jumbos athletics department as women’s and intramural sports expanded in the 1980s, and made concerted efforts to improve the athletic facilities.

“He was a very vocal guy. He loved sport, and he loved the history of sport,” Martha Whiting,

head women’s soccer coach, said. “His big thing was [the] student-athlete experience, and he was always on the side of the student-athletes, always pushing for them, always advocating for the student-athletes, which I thought was awesome … You always knew that Rocky was in your corner.”

A Pennsylvania native, Carzo played fullback on the football team at the University of Delaware beginning in 1950. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1954 and a master’s degree in education in 1956. Carzo began his coaching career in Delaware while earning his master’s, becoming the Delaware assistant football coach after graduation from 1956–1959. Alongside this he also served as a Delaware lacrosse coach from 1958–1959.

When the opportunity presented itself, Carzo moved across the country to serve as a backfield coach for the University of California, Berkeley football team. In this role he was able to work alongside NFL legends like Marv Levy and Bill Walsh. Levy later coached for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills, while Walsh headed the San Francisco 49ers.

However, Carzo did not hesitate to return to the East Coast when the head coaching job at

Tufts opened. Something about the Brown and Blue drew Carzo to Medford, Massachusetts, where he would spend much of his time advocating for Tufts athletics.

“I watched and learned as he built relationships,” Head Volleyball Coach Cora Thompson wrote. “He ALWAYS made time for anyone who needed to see him in his office. He built real genuine relationships and valued people first. People will follow you if they feel valued by you.

As a leader, [he made us all feel] incredibly valued.”

“He was more concerned about the lessons that student-athletes could learn by playing sports. Winning was certainly important to him, and he wanted to win, but I think the lessons of sportsmanship, teamwork and leadership, those were the things that mattered the most to him,” Director of Athletic Communications Paul Sweeney said. “Within the department, he created a family atmosphere, where we all not only knew each other and worked with each other, but we knew each other’s families, and we spent time together outside of the office.”

Carzo was not only a legend in the Tufts community, but also within the football world.

Anyone who knew him could recall countless conversations he had with them – talking about sports, family and everything in between. He made everyone with whom he crossed paths feel seen, heard and valued.

“His interaction with people is something I try to make an effort to try, to get to know as many student athletes here as I can, because that’s something that Rocky did,” Civetti said.

“He was very much about we’re family, and Tufts Athletics is a family,” Whiting said. “The idea of being a family for me has carried through with my teams. We’re very proud of the idea of being a family, and Rocky was very much in his line of thinking, ‘we’re all in this together, let’s support each other.”

Beyond athletics, Carzo was an instrumental part of the Tufts in Talloires program. In addition to teaching there for nearly 30 years, he aided in getting Olympic events to take place at Talloires. Even after his retirement, Carzo still traveled back to France each summer to get the program “up and running,” according to Civetti.

He held many other leadership positions beyond Tufts, including within the NCAA as the Division III vice president,

the Eastern College Athletic Conference president, as well as served on college football rules and postseason selection committees.

“He was politically very savvy,” Executive Director of the Office of Alumni Relations and former Athletic Director Bill Gehling said. “He understood at the end of the day that it wasn’t just about your argument, it was about making sure you got enough people to side with you over a contentious issue, and that doesn’t always just come down to the strength of your argument. It comes down to getting people to hear you and also hearing them and understanding what it is that motivates them.”

“He was a guy that people listened to; he was aggressive but in a good way,” Sweeney said.

“He had a sense of humor. He was funny. He worked hard — he wasn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves and do the work with you. He wasn’t just someone who would sit there delegating.”

His reach and impact can be seen in the celebration of his retirement taking place with three separate events: one with Tufts Athletics, one with the Tufts as a whole and the last one in a see CARZO, page 7