The Tufts Daily - Thursday, March 25, 2021

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VOLUME LXXXI, ISSUE 32

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Thursday, March 25, 2021

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Tufts Global Education hosts speakers from Spain, Jamaica, Germany, US in ‘Black Lives Matter Around the World’ panel

SOPHIE DOLAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

Dr. H. Adlai Murdoch (left) and Yasmin Nasrudin (right) are pictured at the “Black Lives Matter Around the World” panel on Wednesday.

by Bo Johnson

Contributing Writer

Tufts Global Education hosted a virtual panel on Wednesday titled “Black Lives Matter Around the World,” moderated

by Dr. H Adlai Murdoch, professor of Francophone studies and director of Africana studies at Tufts, featuring speakers from academic and activist backgrounds in the United States, Spain, Jamaica and Germany. The panel was co-sponsored by the Africana

studies program, the Africana Center and the international relations program.

Charlene Carruthers, a PhD student in the department of African American studies at Northwestern University, has a background in the research of Black feminist political economies and the role of cultural work within the Black radical tradition and has spent more than 15 years community organizing.

Carruthers opened by saying that the importance of amplifying Black voices is not new.

Michèle Flournoy discusses US defense policy, differences between Trump and Biden administrations

by Aditya Acharya Contributing Writer

The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life and The Fletcher School hosted Michèle Flournoy, former under secretary of defense for policy, as part of the Civic Life Lunch speaker series on March 24.

Dean of Tisch College Alan Solomont introduced Flournoy at the beginning of the event, listing her various experiences as a public servant and other career accomplishments.

“Our guest today is one of the country’s leading experts on defense policy and national security,” Solomont said. “From 2009 to 2012, she served as the U.S. under secretary of defense for policy, where she was the principal advisor to the secretary of defense in the formulation of national security and defense policy, oversight of military plans

and operations and in National Security Council deliberations.”

The discussion with Flournoy was moderated by Monica Toft, professor of international politics and director of the Center for Strategic Studies at Fletcher.

Toft began the conversation with the acknowledgement that both she and Flournoy are children of the Cold War era before transitioning into a question about the early parts of Flournoy’s career and, specifically, the nuclear situation.

“The advice I got very early on was you’ve got to pick something you’re passionate about and then go deep; really make yourself an expert in something,” Flournoy said. “For me, that was nuclear weapons, beam counting, it was arms control treaties, it was nuclear proliferation, and that’s really the focus see FLOURNOY, page 3

“I believe that the overall topic for our discussion today is always relevant. It’s been relevant, frankly, for hundreds of years, and it’s absolutely relevant today,” Carruthers said.

She said that this particular moment in the fight for Black lives, especially in the aftermath of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many others, is part of something larger.

“This is situated within ongoing local, national and transnational movements for Black liberation,” Carruthers said. “This is not new.”

In particular, she noted that Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., with large African immigrant populations, demonstrate the interconnectedness of global demands for Black justice, and how this issue has been prominent in Black people’s lives long before the Black Lives Matter movement gained traction last summer.

“People haven’t forgotten their people on the continent of Africa, their people in other parts of the world,” Carruthers said.

“They are involved with struggles globally as well and making those connections and not waiting for conversations like this to help them figure out … they’re talking to their cousins, they’re talking to their family members.”

Dr. Esther Mayoko Ortega Arjonilla, an associate professor of critical race studies at Tuftsin-Madrid, applied Carruthers’ points to her experiences in Spain.

She particularly saw the George Floyd protests as an opportunity to amplify the voices of Afro-Spaniards and to examine long-standing issues in the

country, saying it marked a “real turning point” for local Black and African activism in Spain.

“In the last five, six, sevenyears in Spain, we have the creation of multiple associations and activist groups … led by collectives of young people, young Black women, and queer and questioning people, and this is new leadership in a movement traditionally led by heterosexual Black men,” Mayoko Ortega Arjonilla said.

She reflected specifically on the treatment of African migrants in Spain.

“These African workers in agriculture live in inhuman conditions: no electricity, no clean drinking water, working 10–12 hours a day,” Mayoko Ortega Arjonilla said.

Beyond poor treatment, Mayoko Ortega Arjonilla noted that Spain’s unique position at Europe’s southern border has led to poor treatment of entering immigrants. She pointed to an incident from 2014 when Spanish see PANEL, page 2

Africana Center hosts Black Womyn’s Empowerment Conference

COURTESY AMBER ASUMDA

The Africana Center hosted its inaugural Black Womyn’s Empowerment Conference on March 12 and 13.

by Peri Barest

Assistant News Editor

The Africana Center hosted its inaugural Black Womyn’s Empowerment Conference on March 12 and 13. The conference, which had about 100 registrants, was open to all Black female and femme post-secondary students in the Northeast.

Amber Asumda, who was the conference chair for the event, came up with the idea when thinking of ways to empower Black women for her Tisch Scholar project.

“About a year ago, after the death of Breonna Taylor, around this time last year actually, and the BLM protests last summer, I was thinking of a way of how to empower Black women, throughout the United States,” Asumda, a junior, said. “I came up with an idea of a seminar or a conference, geared toward empowering Black women students.”

The conference’s theme was “I am because we are,” and consisted of a series of panels, workshops and sessions over two days on topics ranging from network-

EDITORIAL / page 9

FEATURES / page 4

SPORTS / back

The Daily condemns anti-Asian racism and stands with Asian and Asian American communities

Carmichael goes meatless on Mondays after multiyear Eco-Rep campaign

With competition set to resume, some athletes have mixed emotions

ing and career advice to personal development and community building. Rev. Naomi Tutu, the daughter of human rights advocate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, gave the closing keynote address. “’I am because we are’ is kind of the English deviation of the Zulu word ‘ubuntu,’ which speaks to the ideas of African spirituality and collectivity,” Asumda said.

“We wanted to use the theme ‘I am because we are’ to highlight that, even though throughout the see CONFERENCE, page 2 NEWS

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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 | Thursday, March 25, 2021

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Mayoko Ortega Arjonilla speaks out on violence against Black migrants PANEL

continued from page 1 police shot with rubber bullets and small grenades at a group of Black migrants who were swimming toward Spain. The shooting killed 14 of the migrants.

Yasmin Nasrudin, one of the panelists and the director of the Education USA Advising Center and deputy director of intercultural affairs at the German-American Institute Tübingen, noted that Germany has a lot of similarities with Spain in this realm.

Nasrudin noted that the movement for Black lives in

Germany is fairly new, having been especially spurred on in 1980s with the help of Audre Lorde, who was an American writer, feminist and civil rights activist. Lorde lived in Germany in the mid-1980s as a visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin.

“She gave the Black women the empowerment and emancipation of creating their own language and giving a new perspective on life in Germany as Black people,” Nasrudin said.

She also delved into the question of language, and explained

the recent shift from the term Afro-German to Black German.

Dr. Danielle Roper, assistant professor in Latin American literature at the University of Chicago, spoke to the way the momentum from George Floyd’s killing reinforced, rather than created, the need for the work of Black activists.

“I think that when we talk about Black radicalism and Black activism today, we have to think about this moment as continuing the spirit of solidarity and transnationalism that characterized Black radical practices and movements of yesteryear,” Roper said.

Roper also emphasized the need to recognize that Black Lives Matter is not a movement limited to the United States nor other Black-minority countries.

“I think it’s important to note this because conversations of anti-Blackness sometimes leave out the fact that anti-Black racism is indeed a phenomenon that organizes predominantly Black countries in the Global South as well, and such is the case in countries like Jamaica, Barbados and elsewhere,” Roper said.

Murdoch then turned it over to the audience for questions.

Black Womyn’s Empowerment Conference expected to continue in future years CONFERENCE

continued from page 1 different schools in the Northeast are attending, we’re still Black woman students, we have some shared experiences regardless of socioeconomic status, location, background, etc.”

Saffiyah Coker, a communication coordinator for the conference, said that the timing of the event was especially poignant. “[The timing] was intentional because of Womyn’s History Month, and it also so happened that the second day, March 13, was the one year anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s death,” Coker, a first year, said. “It was a really sobering and impactful moment because there were multiple moments of silence held during the day to honor her memory.”

While the conference was originally for just students in Massachusetts, the coordinators decided to expand it to all Black female students in the Northeast to reach as many people as possible, Elisabeth Di Domenico, a first-year and a marketing coordinator for the conference, said.

The networking 101 session and panels about Black women in law and public policy, medicine, social enterprise and tech-

nology aimed to provide attendees with academic skills and career advice.

“We gave attendees the opportunity to workshop their resumes, network with each other, learn how to market themselves, as well [as] to brand themselves in interviews,” Asumda said.

Waideen Wright, content coordinator for the conference, said that she came up with the idea for one of the panels, called “Rainbow Sisters: LGBTQ+ Black Womyn.”

“I was the one who brought up having the Rainbow Sisters panel to represent queer women,” Wright, a sophomore, said. “That intersectionality of not all Black women are the same, not all of them walk the same walk, is really important to me as a queer Black woman because we’re often put in this box of expectations, and I just want people to know that no matter who you are and you know what you’re passionate about, you can really achieve everything you want with the great support system and strong dream.”

Asumda said that she learned a lot from the “Lavender Table Talk on Womanism” panel, which included Boston’s Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola.

“That panel was amazing,” Asumda said. “It’s like womanism is to feminism as purple [is to] lavender … [T]here’s similarities between the two like the nature of being a woman and also emphasis on the uplifting of Black women and other women of color.”

Another one of the panels was called “#SayHerName,” which included Dr. Kerri Greenidge, an associate professor of race, colonialism and diaspora at Tufts, Dr. Christina Greer, an associate professor of political science and American studies at Fordham University and Hannah Drake, an author, poet and activist, according to Asumda.

“It was a conversation that needed to happen,” Asumda said.

“It’s been almost a year since all the racial [issues] and [in]justices in this country were brought to the forefront, so [we heard] from Black woman scholars in that field, who, through their personal experiences, have kind of lived in activism and through their research have discovered that these are more than just statistics about Black women and violence and also police brutality; it is a reality that many people are facing day to day.”

Asumda discussed the importance of giving Black women and

COVID-19 AT TUFTS

Black transgender women a space to connect with one another.

“Particularly, physically a Black woman at the intersection of race and gender have kind of just historically faced many different justices,” Asumda said. “So it’s good to actually have the opportunity to create a gathering space for women and Black women, trans women, anyone who identifies as a woman … having a place of Black people together, and then on top of that, having a shared experience with women, your sisters and kind of just reflecting on that is I think super important.”

Di Domenico noted that they have been receiving feedback on the conference and hope to continue it in future years.

Wright expanded on how crucial it is that spaces exist for Black women to support themselves and empower each other.

“It’s really important to empower Black women because we don’t always have that security and that backing where people are rooting for us and supporting us. We kind of have to be our own support system,” Wright said.

“Empowering each other is our greatest strength in the sense that we know our struggles the best, and we know what we need to succeed.”

News

Thursday, March 25, 2021 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Flournoy offers advice to students looking to pursue careers in public service FLOURNOY

continued from page 1 area that I spent the first eight years of my career [on].”

Toft said that people don’t talk about nuclear weapons as much as they did in the 1970s and ‘80s, and asked about safety today.

Flournoy advocated for the consideration of various aspects of the United States’ relationship with nuclear powers such as China and Russia, so that nuclear politics are not the sole focal point of these relationships.

“I think that we have to be thinking about how to maintain strategic stability with Russia, with China, not only from a nuclear perspective, but from the perspective of all the different capabilities and the things that can touch that strategic stability, including things like cyber weapons or hypersonics or other types of technologies,” Flournoy said.

In discussing the transition from the Trump administration to the Biden administration, Flournoy discussed how the use of waivers to instate retired generals as the secretaries of defense has been a consistent decision that may have negative implications in government.

“There are only two civilians in the chain of command in our democracy, and they are the president and the secretary of defense,” Flournoy said. “The fact that [a military official has become secretary of defense] twice in a row … is, I don’t think, healthy as a long term trend … it’s very, very important to reempower the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the civilians there to support the civilian oversight functions in the department,

SOPHIE DOLAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

Michèle Flournoy (left), American defense policy advisor and former government official, talks with Monica Toft (right), director of the Center for Strategic Studies at The Fletcher School, at a Tisch College event ‘Civic Life Lunch: Defense Policy in the Post-Trump Era with Michèle Flournoy’ because those had been either neglected or had atrophied substantially in the last four years.”

Regarding differences between the two administrations, Flournoy said that President Joe Biden strives to consider China as both a competitor of the United States in several ways, as well as China’s potential to be a partner of the United States in solving global issues.

“I think you’re going to see the Biden Administration take a less tactical approach and more of a strategic approach; they’re taking time upfront to do a series of policy reviews, [and a] classic example is on China,” Flournoy said. “Trump was very trade-focused, very tactically focused on tariffs and the Phase 1 trade deal, whereas Biden is really trying to take a look at the relationship in a

much broader context and the competition across economic, technological, military, and ideological or political dimensions, but also the fact that we’re going to have to cooperate with China in key areas like climate change and pandemic prevention.”

Toft asked Flournoy about advice she would give to students who are pursuing careers in these fields.

“I would just ask that you find a way to serve in some capacity, whether that’s military, whether it’s federal government, whether it’s through the nonprofit sector, NGOs, find a way to serve because there’s nothing more rewarding than being part of advancing a mission that serves a greater public good,” Flournoy said.

She then touched on the gender dynamics in govern-

ment jobs and encouraged young women to pursue careers in national security.

“Don’t let the fact that it’s a male-dominated area deter you,” Flournoy said.

She acknowledged the progress that has been made, but noted that there is still a long way to go.

“When I first was in the Pentagon, we had a women’s lunch and all eight of us sat at one table in the dining room, and everyone was staring at it, like ‘Why are the women having lunch together?’ …

Now you could fill, at least in the Obama Administration you could have filled, the entire dining room with women leaders,” Flournoy said. “So, it has gotten better. It’s not where it needs to be, but it is getting better.”

Flournoy then answered questions from the audience, one of which asked what led her

to become a policymaker. She mentioned how the experience of having an idea implemented is very empowering.

“One of the things I was most proud of is we put in place a human capital strategy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense that started investing in our people and developing them as professionals, and that had a profound impact on performance, on morale, and became a model for other parts of the department,” Flournoy said. “In terms of lasting impact and what people come back to me and say ‘Oh my goodness, that was the most amazing thing,’ it’s not the bin Laden raid … it’s not this or that policy, it is the impact we had on the people who are still there in the workforce and who had an opportunity to really grow and shine during that period.”

4 Thursday, March 25, 2021

Features

F e at u r e s Keira Myles Anthro Talks tuftsdaily.com

To increase sustainability, Carmichael Dining Center implements Meatless Mondays

The intersection of race and gender with COVID-19

by Delaney Clarke Contributing Writer

Students on campus this semester may have seen their phones light up on a Monday afternoon with a notification from the Tufts Mobile Order app encouraging them to try one of the plant-based options at Carmichael Dining Center. This notification is a part of Tufts Meatless Mondays, an initiative implemented by Carmichael Dining Center this semester in which each Monday the dining hall serves solely meatless options for dinner. The program began on Feb. 22.

Taite Pierson, a senior and coordinator of Tufts EcoRepresentatives, explained that the Eco-Reps have had a Meatless Mondays program since 2014.

However, according to Pierson, the decision for Carmichael to serve only meatless dinner options on Mondays was made by the dining center itself.

According to Pierson, the Eco-Reps’ version of Meatless Mondays did not involve a completely plant-based menu at Carmichael or Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center but rather involved Eco-Reps’ asking students to select a meatless option over the other options served that night.

“The Eco-Reps would stand in the dining hall, in both dining halls, actually … and basically ask people as they were coming in for dinner if they wanted to try eating meatless, and if they did, they would mark themselves on a whiteboard and we would tally how many people were going meatless,” Pierson said.

When COVID-19 hit, the presence of the Eco-Reps in the dining halls diminished due to social distancing guidelines, leaving the program searching for other ways to engage with students.

“This whole year we were trying to figure out how to do Meatless Mondays and how to emulate that same spirit,” Pierson said.

Pierson explained that this year there is a specific section within Eco-Reps focused on food sustainability that had been meeting with Tufts Dining. This semester, the food sustainability area was excited to hear Carmichael’s decision to have fully meatless dinners on Mondays.

“They were meeting with Dining this semester, and then we got the news that Carm was going meatless on Mondays which, it wasn’t even really born from those meetings … this was just honestly a great decision on their behalf,” Pierson said.

Although the decision was implemented by Carmichael, Kristen Kaufman, the recycling and waste reduction coordinator in the Office of Sustainability, explained that Meatless Mondays involves a collaboration between the dining center and the Eco-Reps.

Content warning: This column mentions domestic violence. ust over a year since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, one must stop to reflect on how the pandemic has revealed structural health and economic vulnerabilities along racial and gender lines.

Though a “we’re all in this together” mentality attempts to boost national morale in battling COVID-19, it shrouds the structural inequities faced by Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, Latino and other marginalized groups who bear disproportionate effects of COVID-19, not to mention HIV/AIDS, hypertension, poverty, diabetes, climate change disasters, unemployment, mass incarceration and more.

Nationwide, COVID-19 deaths for Indigenous, Black, and Hispanic or Latino populations are 2.4, 1.9 and 2.3 times the rate of deaths for white people, respectively. According to the CDC, front-line workers in health care facilities, farms, factories, grocery stores and public transportation, are often racial and ethnic minorities, who face the

J

MINA TERZIOGLU / THE TUFTS DAILY

An Eco-Rep explains Tufts Meatless Mondays at Carmichael Dining Center to students on March 22.

“We’re trying to make it col- ronment a better one and sup- Change to develop more sustainlaborative and Dining wanted to port Tufts’ mission of becoming able and healthy menu items.

Sophomore Janya Gambhir help connect the chefs and the carbon neutral.”

According to Joseph, some of has been a vegetarian since she Carm managers to the students who are helping to spearhead this the plant-based meals that stu- was 8 years old. Gambhir said she initiative on the ground for their dents can explore on Meatless finds the meatless options at Tufts Mondays include a lentil loaf, fried to be more plentiful than at other peers,” Kaufman said.

Kaufman explained how the spicy cauliflower, eggplant parme- schools.

“I think that compared to Eco-Reps plan to measure how san and Mediterranean pizza.

Lyza Bayard, marketing and other colleges, and compared to many people actually go meatless communications specialist other stories that I’ve heard from for the night. “[The Eco-Reps are] doing for Tufts Dining, spoke of how my vegetarian friends, I think Instagram posts like stories, news- Carmichael’s chefs and cooks work Tufts definitely has a lot more letters … and part of those com- to develop new sustainable meals. options,” Gambhir said. “So in “Tufts Dining is part of a that sense, I think that there it’s munications is a prompt basically saying ‘Hey, if you go meatless larger initiative called Menus of much easier to be vegetarian at Tufts compared to most other tonight text “meatless” to this Change,” Bayard said.

Bayard explained that Menus universities in the U.S., and I’m number.’ And then we get a tally of how many people do that and one, of Change “is a groundbreak- really grateful for that.”

That being said, Gambhir have engaged with us, and two, ing initiative from the Culinary have actually gone meatless or red Institute of America and Harvard noted that at times, she does T.H. Chan School of Public experience some difficulty findmeat-less,” Kaufman said. ing vegetarian options at Tufts.

According to Kaufman, Health.”

“I do think that it varies a lot The chefs are “developing the Meatless Mondays has the potential to inspire students to make menus, and they’re doing them based on the dining hall … so I small behavior changes that can weekly,” Bayard said. “They’re would say that it’s not as automathave a positive impact on the referencing sources we have like ic as just being able to walk into the Menus of Change from the any location and being able to environment.

“I think the spirit of Meatless Culinary Institute of America find options,” Gambhir said.

Gambhir said that Mondays isn’t ‘Oh, the only where there are all kinds of pheCarmichael’s Meatless Mondays desirable outcome of Meatless nomenal recipes,” Bayard said.

Menus of Change is “real- initiative seems to be a step in the Mondays is that this person doesn’t have meat for dinner today,’ but to ly looking at how we can cre- right direction.

“I think that it’s definitely a really empower people to think ate menus that don’t just revolve differently about the sustainability around meat so that we can good route to go,” Gambhir said. of food — what the impact can be make a greater impact on posi- “I think it’s definitely something of not eating meat with us once tive change in our environment,” that we all need to do. And you’re a week and just to educate about emphasizing “dining with healthy, seeing the trend increasingly of the sustainability of our food deci- fresh, flavorful food and plant- college students going vegetarian and vegan, and people becoming sions,” Kaufman said. “If someone based options,” Bayard said.

Bayard added in an email to more plant-based. It’s definitely loves red meat and even decides to go red meat-less for a day and the Daily that some of the princi- something I’m seeing within my maybe have chicken, that’s a big ples of Menus of Change include own community.”

However, Gambhir noted plant-based cooking; whole, minbehavior change.”

This desire to encourage sus- imally processed foods; a reduc- that in addition to an increase in tainability within the dining halls tion of added sugars; and better plant-based options, she would also like to see Tufts reduce plasis shared by members of Tufts agricultural practices.

“They’re working to realize the tic waste.

Dining. Michelle Joseph, dining “I think that if Tufts wants service manager at Carmichael long-term practical vision of inteDining Center, spoke about why grating optimal nutrition, pub- to become more sustainable, an Carmichael came to the decision. lic health, environmental stew- equally important, or arguably “We are aware that lowering ardship, restoration and social even more important, aspect the intake of meat makes a sig- responsibility within the food is reducing plastic waste,” nificant difference on our overall service industry and the culinary Gambhir said. health, but also [on] the environ- profession,” Bayard said.

Sophomore Sam Markowitz, According to Bayard, Dewick an Eco-Rep who is a part of the ment,” Joseph said. “We want to contribute to making our envi- has been inspired by Menus of food sustainability area, explained

the effect that meat consumption can have on the environment.

“There are a lot of different ways in which consuming meat impacts the environment and carbon footprints … you have livestock grazing, and the amount of energy that goes into taking care of cows or chickens from when they’re a baby … up until they’re killed,” Markowitz said. “And then even through the processing and preparation, the amount of energy that these meat plants consume, and then the transit cost of traveling from a meat plant to a center of distribution to Tufts; all along the supply chain there are different emissions costs and then also the water cost as well, mostly with raising animals.”

Markowitz explained that an understanding of this supply chain is essential for conceptualizing the impact that meat consumption has on the environment.

“I think that when people think about eating meatless, it’s important to consider how the footprint of the meat you eat starts way, way before it gets to your plate,” Markowitz said. “It starts from the day the animal’s born or even the day that these seeds are planted or livestock farms are created.”

Markowitz believes eating meatless, even for one night, is worth giving a try.

“I would definitely encourage students who might be initially scared of trying to eat meatless for one night to give it a shot, just once,” Markowitz said.

Markowitz added that in terms of getting students to try plant-based meals, “the ultimate goal is to encourage students to … see if it works for them and then try and apply what they’ve both learned from us and the kinds of recipes and food they’ve come to enjoy from the dining halls and hopefully apply a more sustainable outlook on their diet and life going forward.”

Thursday, March 25, 2021 | Features | THE TUFTS DAILY highest risk of contracting COVID-19.

Often white, middle-class and wealthy people direct these essential workers, deciding who lives or dies. Since the structure of the American schooling system limits minority groups from equal education access, minorities often face limited job options and less flexibility to leave jobs, placing them at higher virus exposure risk. Housing also poses a threat, with minorities facing disproportionate risks of eviction, and condensed housing styles making it troublesome to prevent COVID-19 spread.

The pandemic also deepens gender inequalities. COVID-19 affects women’s economic lives disproportionately because women throughout the world earn less than men and more often hold insecure jobs in the informal sector, according to a 2020 policy brief from the United Nations. They also make up the majority of single-parent households. Furthermore, women face the strain of performing an average of 75% of global unpaid care work, including child care, elder care, cooking and cleaning. As hospitals struggled to address the flow of COVID-19 infections, women bore the brunt of a growing role as unpaid caregivers, especially of older people. While managing greater home care demands, their jobs disproportionately face cuts and layoffs, common in the female-overrepresented service sector, including retail, hospitality and tourism. School closures due to the pandemic mean girls may be handling more chores at home (girls spend more hours on chores compared to

boys), leading to the possibility of millions dropping out of school before completing their education. Even more saddening, social distancing restrictions have led to a 25% increase in gender-based violence reports in countries that have established reporting systems, according to the United Nations policy brief. In Argentina, emergency calls for cases of domestic violence have increased by 25% since the start of the pandemic.

These disproportionate effects are present in Somerville, too. An undocumented woman interviewed by two Massachusetts anthropologists revealed how the pandemic constrained undocumented women’s economic impact across borders. The woman migrated to Somerville in 2005 to support her family in El Salvador (including sending $150 a month to her ill mother) by cleaning office buildings in Boston. With COVID-19, her stability vanished; her husband lost his restaurant job and she was furloughed and unable to claim unemployment due to her undocumented status. She was faced with two care challenges: She could not send remittances home and needed to care for her children without income.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created enormous difficulties in particular for women who are essential workers, multiplying the already present negative effects of capitalism, racism and sexism, on their livelihoods, health and well-being.

Keira Myles is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Keira can be reached at keira.myles@tufts.edu.

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Kevin Zhang Tales from the T

The Southwest Expressway

L

ast week, we discussed the Atlantic Avenue Elevated, which once carried subway trains above the Boston waterfront. One of several bygone elevated railroads in Boston, both it and today’s Orange Line tunnel once connected to another line, the Washington Street Elevated. This line ran to Forest Hills via Washington Street and Nubian Square. Part of the Orange Line until 1987, the Washington Street Elevated was then demolished, ostensibly due to its noise and age. The Orange Line was then rerouted westward to its current route, in a trench alongside commuter and intercity trains. If postwar planners had their way, the line would also have run alongside an eight-lane expressway. What happened?

In the postwar era, American railroads entered a period of decline — which, alongside excessive em dashes, is quickly becoming a recurring feature of this column. Cars were the fast, stylish, futuristic way to travel, and governments planned massive taxpayer-funded highways accordingly. In 1948, the Master Highway Plan for Metropolitan Boston was released, which envisioned, alongside other routes, an expressway along the Boston-Providence railway. This “Southwest Expressway” would directly link downtown to the southwest and would include a rerouted Orange Line in its median.

Of course, it takes far more than drawing a line on a map to build an expressway. Even though it followed an existing railroad, over 700 households would need to be evicted. Entire communities would be slashed in two by a 300-foot wide trench — or simply obliterated.

But it was no coincidence that these communities, like Roxbury and Jamaica Plain, were home to many low-income people of color. It was no coincidence that these were the very communities being bankrupted by government-sanctioned redlining. And it was no coincidence that these communities, like others across the country that lacked political capital and power, were to be the sacrificial lambs for white suburban commuters.

Thankfully, residents were able to successfully fight back against this butchering of their neighborhoods. In 1970, a moratorium was placed on expressway construction within Greater Boston, calling instead for transportation designed for neighboring communities. In 1972, the Southwest Expressway was canceled.

But by then, land had already been taken for the expressway. It was decided that the Orange Line would be rerouted. The remaining land would be turned into the Southwest Corridor Park, a ribbon of greenery with design features varying based on the needs of individual neighborhoods.

These neighborhoods were the lucky ones. By 1970, highways had already been hacked all the way into downtown Boston.

Adjacent neighborhoods like Chinatown and East Somerville remain exposed to dangerous levels of airborne pollutants, a risk that, unsurprisingly, disproportionately impacts low-income people and people of color.

We now know that building more roads actually increases traffic, instead of reducing it. We now know that cars are a major cause of pollution and deaths in America. In short, we now know that the Southwest Expressway was frankly a bad idea. But whether we now know how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and how to heal the communities wounded by our choices is up to us.

Kevin Zhang is a sophomore studying civil engineering. Kevin can be reached at kevin.zhang7@tufts.edu.

6 Thursday, March 25, 2021

WEEKENDER

W

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10 years later, analyzing ‘Femme Fatale’ as Britney Spears’ zenith

VIA JIVE RECORDS / SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT

by Chris Panella Arts Editor

There’s something particularly enticing about the opening seconds of “Till The World Ends,” the first track and second single off Britney Spears’ “Femme Fatale” (2011). An electronic ringing introduces the song and quickly transforms into a steady dance-pop beat. Spears’ iconic heavy breathing and vocalization appear soon after, setting a familiar tone. But as “Till The World Ends” continues, we soon realize that this is a different sound than what we’ve heard before from the princess of pop. It’s sparky and robotic. This is “BritEDM,” “Britelectronic” music or whatever you want to call it.

It’s breathtakingly euphoric. With each chanting chorus, Spears brings us deeper into the crowded dance floor. She sings that she’s “never … felt like this before” and pleads to “keep on dancin’ till the world ends.” Of course, the music video’s pretty on the nose in representing these lyrics. It features Spears at

an underground party on Dec. 21, 2012 — the day the world was predicted to end. But none of the partygoers care about the destroyed world above them.

They just keep dancing.

“Femme Fatale” came at a significant moment in both American music and Spears’ career. Riding on the early rise of electronic dance music, the singer’s seventh album had one overarching desire: to commemorate Spears’ new era after her rise, fall and comeback in popular culture. Of course, that’s a simplification of what might be her greatest work to date. But at the time, “Femme Fatale” acted as a turning point, a recognition that Spears was more powerful and profitable than she had been since her 1999 debut, “…Baby One More Time.”

The numbers don’t lie: three Top 10 singles, a No. 1 album and possibly her best concert tour. “Femme Fatale” was Spears’ zenith.

Spears spent 2008 to the end of 2009 staging a career revival.

She was in the news because

of her return to normalcy. Her sixth album “Circus” (2008) was certainly a palate cleanser from the shocking darkness of “Blackout” (2007). And the subsequent tour, “The Circus Starring Britney Spears” (2009), was the perfect way to reconnect the singer with her fans.

But by 2011, because enough time had passed and other music artists had dominated the charts, “Femme Fatale” was almost like another comeback. Drama surrounded the new album, mostly about who would actually produce it and what it would sound like. The latter concern came with Spears’ desire for something “fresh-sounding.” Of course, that’s a loaded statement. What does fresh-sounding even mean?

For “Femme Fatale,” it meant embracing EDM while maintaining Spears’ provocative lyricism.

The album was a smash hit, with a sound inspired by Eurodance and techno, but packaged for radio play. Songs like “I Wanna Go” and “Hold It Against Me” played everywhere, from clubs to house parties to school

dances. Their music videos — we’ll get to those later — were instant classics in Spears’ already crowded videography. With every successful single, “Femme Fatale” became one of 2011’s principal pop works. But the release didn’t come without criticism. Spears wasn’t credited as a producer or songwriter on almost all of the songs, and the album’s nonstop dance floor vibes came across as exhausting to some.

Of course, with hindsight, that cohesion is commendable.

Spears set out to make a nonstop dance album, a fancy “Blackout,” and she succeeded.

The album era was also notable for Spears’ collaborations with other female pop stars, particularly her feature on a remix of Rihanna’s “S&M” (2010). Spears’ last big duet was “Me Against the Music (feat. Madonna)” on “In The Zone” (2003), which hosts an iconic music video that almost ends with a kiss between the two (Spears actually asked Madonna to be on the song during rehearsals for their iconic 2003 VMA performance and kiss with Christina Aguilera).

7

Looking at Britney Spears' musical peak, ‘Femme Fatale,’ a decade later

WEEKENDER

The cover of Britney Spears’ album “Femme Fatale” (2011) is pictured.

Thursday, March 25, 2021 | WEEKENDER | THE TUFTS DAILY

It wasn’t until “S&M Remix” (2010) that we got another steamy duet between Spears and a female pop star. The song belongs to Rihanna’s “Loud” (2010), an explosive dancepop album we could certainly double-feature with “Femme Fatale.” With provocative lyrics deemed too explicit for plenty of daytime stations, the remix feels like a connection between both artists’ albums and visions. The same goes for Nicki Minaj and Kesha’s remix of “Till The World Ends” and Spears’ “(Drop Dead) Beautiful (feat. Sabi)” (2011).

In some of these cases, Spears was working with rising female talents. Minaj had just released “Pink Friday” (2010), Kesha dropped “Animal” (2010) and Sabi was on the rise in the music industry. Rihanna, of course, was well established by 2011. But there’s a parallel to draw between Spears’ work with these stars and her earlier collaboration with Madonna. Is it proof that Spears had reached an echelon where she was a mentor?

All of this helps identify that the legacy of “Femme Fatale” rides on connecting to and concluding Spears’ previous works.

This is especially seen visually, in the music videos of “Hold It Against Me” and “I Wanna Go.” Both function as reckonings for the singer, her career and her tumultuous personal life.

“Hold It Against Me” turned 10 years old this past January.

In an interview, director Jonas Åkerlund noted that its music video works with “the whole idea of reflecting back on [Spears’] life and her creativity.” That’s evident from the setting: A towering digital structure displays Spears’ videography on screens, with cameras and lights surrounding her. It reflects the media’s harassment and Spears’ rise, fall and redemption (which is also shown in the music video by her arrival to Earth as a meteor).

But there’s strength amid all of that pain. After Spears fights another version of herself and collapses in a wedding dress, she and her clone rise. It’s a moment of celebration: Spears is back and stronger than yesterday.

This music video is more sophisticated than “I Wanna Go,” which follows the singer’s daydream during a press conference. She cusses out the reporters, flaunts her sexuality on the street, pokes fun at her acting work in “Crossroads” (2002) and ends the video with a Michael Jackson “Thriller” (1995) reference.

That’s all weird — in a good way — and wacky, but what’s most interesting is Spears’ violence toward the paparazzi. see FEMME FATALE, page 7

FEMME FATALE

continued from page 6 She poses for photographs and blows a kiss before destroying a camera. When the cameramen surround her for attention, Spears gets on a taxi and swings her microphone to hit them. It’s a real Gogo Yubari from “Kill Bill Vol. 1” (2003) moment, but the paparazzi are then revealed as robots, so more like a “Kill Bill” meets “The Terminator” (1984) moment.

Ramona Meng Xi Beyond the Underneath

Some thoughts on being a video jockey

M

y only experience of almost becoming a VJ, or video jockey, was for an art installation event, which both started and ended very abruptly. It started abruptly because I had slightly more experience in motion graphics than others and we were pressed for time. It ended abruptly because they realized my “slightly more” experience was not at all equivalent to “sufficient” experience.

Both of these videos exemplify what “Femme Fatale” engages with. It completes a trilogy of “Blackout” and “Circus” and presents Spears as an adult who is dealing with her past and moving forward.

If “Blackout” was an explosion of notoriety, and “Circus” was meant to be a calculated reinvention, then “Femme Fatale” is a sort of a Frankenstein’s monster of the two. A combination and conclusion.

Sure, Spears is acknowledging her history with the media and infamy on all

three. But on “Femme Fatale,” there seems to be a catharsis. And with that, the album also made the singer older and wiser; she collaborated with younger female talent, made the record she had set out to make and dominated pop music once again.

This all looks different in our current context. With “Framing Britney Spears” (2021) and the movement to #FreeBritney, we’re having a larger cultural conversation around the singer’s autonomy and how those involved in her conservatorship

have profited off of her. It makes listening to any of Spears’ albums a bit heavier, and feels connected to the criticism of Spears’ lack of involvement in the production of “Femme Fatale.” How much say has Spears really had over any of her music?

Does it contradict the goals she set when making the album?

Nothing’s clear, but 10 years after “Femme Fatale” dominated, it’s safe to say the album’s legacy remains, both musically and as Spears’ best work.

I underestimated the level of planning and thinking in VJing. During my struggle and under pressure, I recognized my lack of grasp to form a consistent flow of visual ideas that could match the theme, let alone the skill to convert images in my head onto the screen.

VJs are visual artists who create and improvise videos for performances and live music events. My VJ project was abandoned, but I started to pay more attention to visuals during music events. Some of them were sublime in terms of design, composition, meaning and even beat-matching; some of them raised questions in my head.

The visual serves a crucial role in complementing the style and message of the music, as well as the theme of the event.

But the visual is an incredibly difficult aspect of any event to perfect. Like steadying an egg on its end, you need to find

the exact balance. Usually during a music event, the visual dances with the music but never leads. Its presence shouldn’t be scared of attention or the crowd, nor should it be brass or domineering.

The visual and the artist should also form a balance. You should infuse your personality and style into the visual but not make it just about yourself and irrelevant to the music. The compromise is difficult to grasp.

A friend once told me that he doesn’t like seeing the visual because it tends to distract him from the music and a music event is more about the music. It’s true that if the visual doesn’t cooperate well with the music in terms of style and content, it will be distracting. A good visual should be an extra element to look forward to and to enhance the experience together with the music. However, I disagreed with him on

the “it’s more about the music” part. They both require careful planning. Even if the music has more of a leading role, the visual should not just be there nor be loosely planned. Indeed, the fact that he thinks most visuals are distracting is possibly because they were not carefully designed to merge with the environment.

That’s the problem. People, whether they are the audience, the planners, the musicians or even VJs themselves, tend to overlook the importance of VJs. Visuals highlight the core quality of music, helping people to identify and remember each event or musician from a fresh perspective.

The magic couldn’t occur if any of the elements were missing.

Ramona Meng Xi is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Ramona can be reached at meng.xi@tufts.edu.

8

F& G

Opinion

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Thursday, March 25, 2021 | FUN & GAMES | THE TUFTS DAILY

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Liz: “I think people who like trains are really cool!”

FUN & GAMES

SUDOKU

MY DOG: BACKYARD STAYCATION

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9 Thursday, March 25, 2021

EDITORIAL

We as a community must combat anti-Asian racism

Difficulty Level: Keeping mice out of the office.

Thursday’s Solutions

By Aidan Chang

SEARCHING FOR HEADLINES...

Three months into 2021, we are at the one-year mark of when the COVID-19 pandemic first shook the Tufts community. But from the earliest days of the pandemic, when former President Donald Trump began his rhetorical attacks on the “Chinese virus,” the spread of the pandemic has been accompanied by an increase in xenophobic attacks on Asian Americans. By the end of 2020, anti-Asian hate crimes had increased by 150% in major U.S. cities relative to the previous year — a statistic that looks all the more dire when we take into account the fact that hate crime data is often underreported. This wave of hate has spilled into the new year, and just last week it included the depraved murder of eight people, including six women of Asian descent, in Atlanta.

The Daily stands in solidarity with Asian American and Pacific Islander commu-

Brendan Hartnett Democracy in The Daily

CROSSWORD

Hungary’s faux democracy

S

ince 2010, post-Communist Hungary has been Exhibit A in the annals of democratic backsliding into competitive authoritarianism. A facade of democracy has been erected in Hungary, masking a repressive and illiberal government, which has subsequently spread to other countries in the region.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his party, Fidesz, came to power in a democratic regime, but following Orbán’s electoral victory in 2010, he transformed the regime

nities. These acts of violence and hate are unacceptable, as are the ways in which Asian Americans have faced social and legal discrimination for over 150 years. Moving forward, it is urgent that Tufts evaluate how it, as an institution, can better serve the Asian American communities on and off campus. Furthermore, as members of the Tufts community, it is our responsibility to combat anti-Asian racism and foster an inclusive, safe environment.

Asian students are, and will remain, an integral part of the Tufts community. According to data released by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions regarding the Class of 2025, students of color represent more than half of U.S. applicants for the first time. Among them, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander applications increased by 35% and Asia remained the most represented region among international applications. As

students of Asian descent from all over the world continue to matriculate at Tufts, the university and the non-Asian segments of the student body must commit to making this campus a safe one for them.

Tragically, Tufts has not been exempt from the anti-Asian racism that permeates American history. In 2009, a fight broke out when a white Tufts student told members of the Korean Student Association to “go back to China” and threatened to kill them. Tufts’ Asian American Center, meanwhile, was created in the aftermath of an incident in the 1980s wherein fraternity pledges were instructed to yell anti-Asian slurs outside of a residence for Asian American students.

These incidents illustrate that Tufts’ history cannot be separated from American history; the dark stain of antiAsian racism bleeds into both.

The fact that the latter inci-

dent was followed by the creation of the Asian American Center also shows that Tufts is not helpless in the face of hate, and has the power to build and support inclusive institutions on campus — going forward, however, it should not need to wait for moments of crisis to do so.

As an institution, Tufts is responsible to more communities than just those represented in its student body. A 2009 analysis conducted by Tufts’ urban and environmental policy and planning department indicated that of all the neighborhoods in Boston, Chinatown is most vulnerable to gentrification — a fact that cannot be separated from Chinatown’s proximity to Tufts Medical Center.

Historically, the Tufts Medical Center-Chinatown relationship has included multiple bids by Tufts Medical Center to buy land in Chinatown, facing resistance from members of the

local Chinese community. The strained relationship continues today, as demand for housing from medical students makes it harder for Chinatown locals to find affordable rent. The area’s gentrification represents one way in which Tufts’ presence has concrete consequences for the well-being of Asians and Asian Americans.

To genuinely show support for Asian and Asian American communities, Tufts must go beyond releasing statements of solidarity and actually take tangible action. Fighting for security and a safe environment for these communities requires building institutions that support them, and mitigating the effects of institutions that harm them. As students, it is our responsibility to pressure the university to take these actions, in addition to fostering inclusive social spaces and calling out anti-Asian racism wherever it occurs.

to consolidate his power, implementing a new constitution to lock in his party’s electoral advantage. Thanks to its control of the National Election Commission, Orbán’s party has exploited campaign finance rules to fund sham parties that split the vote of legitimate opposition parties challenging Fidesz. Consequently, Fidesz has maintained a parliamentary majority despite receiving only a plurality of the vote in the past two elections.

Institutional manipulations have further consolidated Orbán’s competitive authoritarian rule, as Orbán packed nominally independent state agencies and courts with partisan allies. These institutions, consequently, have been weaponized, leveraging fines and erroneous audits against Fidesz’s political opponents.

Orbán has attacked institutions of Western liberalism, his

main target being Budapest’s Central European University, a “hub of liberal thought” funded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, which was crippled as Orbán passed legislation inhibiting the university from granting U.S. diplomas. In 2018, the Fidesz party passed a “Stop Soros law” — an ill-defined piece of legislation that allows for the imprisonment of those who provide assistance to undocumented immigrants. This law and others like it have been used not only to attack nongovernmental organizations that aid migrants, but also to attack proponents of liberalism who challenge the Fidesz government and its illiberal democracy.

Capitalizing on the COVID19 pandemic, the Fideszcontrolled parliament further centralized power by granting Orbán the ability to rule by decree. This allowed Orbán to

bypass parliament in the policymaking process, restrict access to state information and arrest those who spread false information about the virus. These abilities were deemed autocratic by democracy watchdog groups, as they served as another effort by Orbán to consolidate his power.

While the national emergency that granted Orbán this ability ended in June, Hungary has now set legal precedent for the unlimited use of government powers.

The centralization of power under Orbán in Hungary is, arguably, the most noticeable trend in global governance since the end of the Cold War. What was heralded as the triumph of Western liberalism has been short-lived.

Global democracy levels have receded since 2006, in large part due to the rise of strongmen who have defied the commonly held conception that democracy and

authoritarianism are the only two regime types.

The strongmen have worked to institutionalize political advantages over incumbents, capture independent state agencies, restrict civil liberties and strengthen executive power. Hungary — followed

by Poland, Turkey, the Philippines and, arguably, the United States under Trump — has experienced this trend to the most significant extent. This has been identified as a new regime type: competitive authoritarianism. This system gives off the impression of democracy, but the incumbent’s institutionalization of political advantage is to such an extent that competitive politics, and with them the endurance of a democratic world order, are improbable.

Brendan Hartnett is a sophomore studying political science.

Brendan can be reached at brendan.hartnett@tufts.edu.

10 tuftsdaily.com

SPORTS

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Tennis, field hockey, squash players talk return to practice after Tufts’ loosening of restrictions

ANIKA AGARWAL / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Patricia Obeid poses at the Voute Tennis Courts on April 23, 2018.

by Brigitte Wilson Asisstant Sports Editor

Due to COVID-19 restrictions implemented by the university and the state, the concept of returning to competitive play seemed like a far-off fantasy for many Tufts athletes. Tufts’ early March announcement that spring sports are anticipated to play a shortened, NESCAC-only season beginning in mid-April brought about mixed emotions for many

students who were given only a few weeks to prepare.

“When I did hear the news … I was super excited,” Patricia Obeid, a senior on the women’s tennis team, said. “But I was slightly disappointed, to be honest, because I feel like we definitely weren’t fit … We weren’t physically there to compete.”

Obeid’s teammate, junior Nicole Frankel, felt more excitement and disbelief.

“I was excited — I was not expecting it,” Frankel said. “The last year has just been another thing that’s not going to happen or another thing that’s canceled. I stopped having expectations for anything … It’s nice to have something to look forward to again.”

Just over a year ago, members of the women’s tennis team were gearing up for their spring break trip when they learned that the trip had been canceled due to COVID-19.

“We were shook to our core, is the best way to describe it. We were all really sad, everyone was really emotional and there were a lot of tears shed,” Frankel said.

Like everyone, Obeid had shifting views on when life would resemble normalcy again. It was only when the construction of the Mods began on the tennis courts that she knew how seriously the pandemic was going to affect her collegiate tennis career. After leaving during the spring 2020 semester, Obeid returned to the Tufts campus over the summer.

She began practicing with one of her teammates on the Vouté Tennis Courts, when “the next day, all the nets were gone; I [saw] construction workers and contractors laying out plans,” Obeid said. “That’s when it really hit me.”

Outdoor courts away from Tufts were also hard to access for some members of the tennis teams.

“COVID got real for me when they locked the tennis courts with these fat locks in front of my house for a few months,” Frankel said. “They were closed until August. There was a three-month span when I didn’t get to hit.”

A normal women’s tennis spring season includes numerous matches, against conference and non-conference opponents. But this spring the team’s schedule, if it plays out as expected, will include only four or five matches within Tufts’ NESCAC group.

According to Obeid, the NESCAC has divided the league into two regional brackets. Teams will play within their brackets until the NESCAC championship, when the winners of the two brackets will face off.

After the initial shock and a few days to process the idea of preparing for a season in a short timespan, both Obeid and Frankel are enthusiastic about getting back out on the courts, especially now that Tufts has refinished the courts near Harleston Hall and restricted their use to the tennis teams. The courts were previously open to the public.

While fall and winter sports missed out on any opportunity to compete this year, Tufts’ reinstatement of a spring season has given those athletes a chance to have more regular, longer practices.

“Everyone on the team is excited to be back out playing field hockey and [doing] what we do,” sophomore Sam Gibby, a member of the Tufts field hockey team, said.

According to Gibby, practices continue to be complicated by COVID-19.

“It comes with a little bit of confusion because the COVID guidelines are always changing and we have to be respectful of those,” Gibby said.

As a winter sport, the Tufts men’s squash team was able to

finish out its NESCAC season last year before the pandemic forced a shutdown. This year, members hoped for a season but were left disappointed by the NESCAC’s decision to cancel winter sports.

“There was a lot of anticipation and wondering if we were going to have a season, and then we finally got the notification that we weren’t and everyone was pretty bummed out and kind of angry,” Vaughan Siker, a junior on the men’s squash team, said.

Siker, a resident of Portland, Ore., was unable to play squash for seven months due to COVID19 restrictions. Siker was not able to get back on a squash court until he returned to Tufts.

Even with Tufts’ permission to resume practices, squash’s indoor setting means that the team has to be particularly cautious. According to Siker, members of the team are expected to stay 6 feet apart and eight people are allowed on the courts at a time.

Regardless of the restrictions, though, Siker is eager to have the opportunity to engage in a lifelong passion once again.

“There’s not a lot of things to do, so it is a nice way to keep yourself on schedule and socialize and get back into a mindset of practicing,” he said. “Being able to do a physical activity you enjoy and practice a game you’ve played your whole life … you feel better about a lot of things.”

Across all seasons, athletes are excited to return to their respective sports — whether for competitive play, a routine or just to see their teammates in practice again. While it is a small step, in the Tufts sports world it seems like a semblance of normalcy.

Dylan Thoerner reflects on first season with Tufts basketball, talks training from home

by Jenny Lu

Contributing Staff Writer

Before coming to Tufts in fall 2019, Dylan Thoerner was an accomplished guard and starter for Beckman High School in California. Although he grew up as an all-around talented athlete, Thoerner, now a sophomore, gravitated toward basketball from an early age.

“I’ve played basketball ever since I can remember — on those little hoops,” he said.

Traveling across the country to the East Coast, Thoerner’s transition to collegiate basketball was difficult because of more than just the cold weather.

“In high school, the competition level is different and my goal on the team was as well,” he said. “I carried much more of a heavy burden and my role was

a lot greater. In college, everyone is on your level and you have to figure out what value you add to the team.”

Thoerner played almost the entirety of every game in high school, compared to 15.7 minutes per game in his first season for the Jumbos.

“It was an adjustment period going from starter to coming off the bench,” he said.

Despite early struggles, Thoerner made the most out of his first season. He averaged 7.5 points per game and shot 35.4% from deep and 79.7% from the line, but his stats don’t tell the full story. Thoerner showed up in a big way during important games, including knocking down two clutch last-second free throws to send Tufts into overtime against Colby College in the 2020 NESCAC champion-

ship. Tufts went on to win the title 10–94.

“It felt amazing. In the moment, you have to just zone everything out and treat it as just free throws,” Thoerner said. “The key is not to think about that pressure and know that you’ve done this before, and that it’s just two free throws.”

As a first-year, Thoerner’s execution under pressure with the Jumbos’ season on the line impressed many at Cousens Gymnasium, including his teammate and senior captain Eric Savage.

In a post-game interview with the Daily, Savage said, “My good friend Dylan has ice in his veins, totally pure.”

Unfortunately, the basketball team’s season came to a halt shortly after due to COVID-19.

Tufts had been set to play in the

men’s NCAA Div. III tournament’s “Sweet Sixteen” round when the season was canceled.

“I was super sad; everyone was disappointed. I remember there was dead silence in the locker room,” Thoerner said. “I felt especially bad for senior captain Eric Savage.”

Although Thoerner was unable to carry out the rest of his first season, he felt that he overcame the obstacles with which he started the year, and even won the team’s “most improved player” award.

“By the end of the year, I got a lot more confident,” he said.

“I realized that no matter where I’m playing, I’m still just playing basketball. By the end of the year, I was even playing a little bit more.”

Thoerner is one of many athletes that have elected to study

remotely in order to train from home. He was on campus in the fall but once he knew the winter season would be canceled, he opted to stay home for the spring semester. Thoerner has been hitting the weight room individually, working with a personal trainer and playing with pro players in the gym.

“It’s not the same as playing with your teammates,” Thoerner said. “We have really good chemistry. That’s one of the reasons why we were so successful. We handled adversity really well. Being friends is something very beneficial for playing in games.”

With Thoerner’s performance last season and his dedication to the game, there’s no doubt that his role on the Tufts team will continue to expand in the years to come.