The Tufts Daily - Wednesday, September 16, 2020

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Wednesday, September 16, 2020

At Tufts Dental School, almost 200 affected Talloires Network by layoffs, furloughs, salary reductions awards competitive grants to global partners

by Yiyun Tom Guan News Editor

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The Tufts University School of Dental Medicine is pictured.

by Carolina Espinal Assistant News Editor

Citing budget constraints, Tufts University School of Dental Medicine ( TUSDM) announced in late August its decision to lay off 77 employees, place 26 workers in furlough for four months, reduce hours or salaries for other workers and suspend several community hygiene programs, according to Dean Nadeem Karimbux.

Karimbux explained that the pandemic has dramatically impacted the dental school.

“The dental school has been hardest hit at Tufts,” he wrote in an email to the Daily.

The clinics at the dental school typically provide oral health care to more than 30,000 patients each year, according to Karimbux. He noted that in the wake of increased pressures and statewide shutdowns, however, TUSDM closed almost all of its clinics, except the emergency care clinic.

Patrick Collins, executive director of media relations, said in an email to the Daily that the emergency clinic served about 12 patients per day during the shutdown that resulted from COVID-19. Still, the school is following the state’s restrictions on the number of people who can occupy its clinical spaces.

According to Karimbux, the loss of revenue from the closures of the clinics, coupled with reduced clinical operations, led to a budget deficit of about $22 million for the dental school.

“We waited to communicate this news definitely until

the plan was finalized and approved and to ensure that no populations were disproportionately impacted,” he said.

Karimbux also said that the school sought to spread the direct impact of the measures across departments to preserve as many jobs as possible.

Each department and division within the dental school was asked to work to reduce their budgets.

He indicated that, in an attempt to alleviate the budget deficit, the school implemented hiring freezes, pay freezes and voluntary salary reductions by leadership personnel.

The school also announced the suspension of a program that provided dental health services to high-risk populations in schools in local communities.

In total, 195 employees were affected by the dental school’s new changes, according to Karimbux.

Collins noted, however, that the university is providing separation benefits for those who have been laid off.

He added that, alongside the lost revenue from clinics, the school faced surmounting costs associated with health and safety measures, including investing in plexiglass barriers and personal protective equipment, among other alterations.

Collins explained that a combination of measured and strategic actions has enabled Tufts to avoid layoffs and reduce costs in other university schools, including moratoriums on hiring, wages and discretionary spending, and

placing almost all capital projects on hold.

According to Collins, the university’s budget is currently in balance.

“Going forward, we intend to continue to manage the university’s finances strategically, carefully managing our expenses with a goal of trying to keep our budget balanced throughout the year,” Collins said.

Collins added that the budget issues and actions taken by the dental school are due to the pandemic’s unique impact on the dental field and the reduction of TUSDM’s clinic revenues, as a result of state-related restrictions.

Currently, TUSDM clinics are operating at 35% to 50% capacity. Despite the significant reduction in clinic operations, the dental school hopes to increase operating capacity by the end of 2020, according to Karimbux.

Karimbux acknowledged that the school cannot predict the future as it relates to the pandemic. He also expressed the difficulty of taking such measures that affect many members of the school’s community.

“As healthcare providers, we take pride in providing high-quality care to our patients. As educators, we take pride in providing high-quality education for our students,” Karimbux said. “As individuals and as a community, we are saddened by the steps we had to take to balance our budget: We are losing members of our community.”

The Talloires Network, a global coalition of universities focused on fostering civic engagement initiatives, awarded grants to five university-community partnerships responding to COVID-19.

Lorlene Hoyt, executive director of the Talloires Network and a research professor in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts, explained that the grants are part of the University Award for Innovative Civic Engagement and are funded by a grant from the Open Society Foundations Higher Education Support Program.

The fund particularly provides financial support to projects in the Global South that address the public health problems induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Hoyt. “[The university civic engagement movement] is more wellknown in North America …, Australia and . .. Europe, so we were really seeking to expand the movement [to the Global South], and … elevate new ideas that aren’t familiar to the Global North,” Hoyt said.

The categories of projects the Talloires Network and the Open Society Foundations were looking to fund included those related to higher education, health and well-being, displaced people and climate justice, according to Hoyt.

She added that the COVID-19 pandemic hit soon after the two organizations called for project proposals, which led to most projects being submitted to the health and well-being category.

The Talloires Network also specifically looked at universities that had existing research or teaching partnerships with their local communities but also prioritized the promotion of gender equality, according to Hoyt.

The selection committee looked at both the programmatic elements that involve tackling gender inequality problems and the leadership role of women within the partner institutions themselves.

“Each of the winners have deliberately positioned women in key roles in the partnerships,” Hoyt said. “In countries like the ones awarded, [this degree of gender equity] is somewhat

FEATURES / page 3

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SPORTS / back

Understanding the intricacies of implicit bias with Professor Maddox

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exceptional. It’s not the common practice at all.”

One initiative receiving the grant money is Health Care for Internally Displaced Persons in Cameroon to Mitigate the Impacts of COVID-19, which is co-sponsored by Meridian Global University and the Access Care Foundation, according to the Talloires Network website.

Dr. Elvis Akomoneh, executive director of the Access Care Foundation, explained that the initiative provides health care-related services to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the region.

Akomoneh indicated that the initiative grew from hundreds of thousands of Cameroonians being forced to flee their homes due to an armed conflict between the Cameroonian government and separatists.

According to Akomoneh, problems that IDPs are faced with have only been exacerbated by the pandemic.

“The recent outbreak of COVID-19 placed these IDPs who mostly live in overcrowded rooms with questionable sanitary conditions at a greater risk,” he wrote in an email to the Daily.

Akomoneh said that with the support of the Talloires Network grant, the project is installing hand-washing stations, distributing free face masks and hand sanitizers and launching a household pandemic education campaign, among other programs.

The project also focuses on improving the livelihood of women and provides them with medicine to prevent malaria, HIV and other diseases, according to Akomoneh.

Another initiative receiving grant money from the Talloires Network is the Co-creation Strategies for Improving the Health of Children and Access to Safe Water in a Time of Crisis, according to the Talloires Network website.

This project is led by Mount Kenya University (MKU) and Partners for Care, a local non-governmental organization that focuses on improving the quality of water in Kenya, according to its website.

Dr. Peter Kirira, the director of the MKU Foundation, which is leading the project on behalf of MKU, wrote in an email to the Daily that MKU has previously worked with Partners for Care. see NETWORK, page 2 NEWS

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, September 16, 2020

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Grants focused primarily on COVID-19, sanitation resources

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continued from page 1 He said that the organizations have distributed 50,000 water backpacks and treated 9,000 students for jiggers in the past.

Kirira explained that, in light of COVID-19, the Talloires Network’s grant will be used to provide sanitation resources in underserved areas, as well as additional water backpacks and jigger treatments.

Hoyt explained that a key event for Talloires Network mem-

ber institutions is the Talloires Network Leaders Conference (TNLC), where members have the opportunity to meet and engage with other partners from around the globe.

“One of the things we find is that when people are doing this kind of work, it’s very difficult … to take the time to stop and reflect on your practice in a rigorous way,” Hoyt said. “In [sharing their experiences with someone from another country], they often uncover their own assump-

tions and biases [and] learn more about themselves.”

Akomoneh, who learned about the Talloires Network in 2014 and received a grant in 2015, fondly recalled his experience attending the TNLC conference in Mexico in 2017.

“My participation at the Talloires Network 2017 Leaders Conference in the Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Mexico gave me the opportunity to meet with the very supportive team at the Network’s [secretariat]

as well as learn from engagement activities of other member Universities,” Akomoneh said.

He added that he has enjoyed being a part of the Talloires Network.

“To say the least, my experience being a member of the network has been phenomenal and has helped guide our community engagement initiatives.”

The next TNLC is scheduled for 2021 and will be hosted by both Tufts University and Harvard University.

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Features

3 Wednesday, September 16, 2020

You Gotta Know: A Q&A with Keith Maddox

by Evelyn McClure Features Editor

Keith Maddox is an associate professor in the psychology department and the director of the Tufts University Social Cognition Lab. His research centers around prejudice and implicit bias, and his lab explores the connections between our social cognition and stereotyping. The Daily sat down with Maddox to discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on his research and his teaching.

Tufts Daily (TD): Tell us a bit about your background before coming to Tufts.

Keith Maddox (KM): I grew up in Troy, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. I ended up going to the University of Michigan … and graduated from there in 1991 with a bachelor’s in psychology.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do once I graduated, so I took a year off and worked for the university. I ultimately decided to go to a Ph.D. program for social psychology, so then I went to graduate school at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I left that program a little bit early in 1997, which is when I started at Tufts. In my first year here, I was a lecturer working on my dissertation. I finished my dissertation and then at that point, I was hired as an assistant professor.

So, I have been an assistant professor here at Tufts since 1998.

I do research on stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination for the most part in a couple of different areas. The area I focus on is called racial phenotypicality bias, which is the extent to which people we think about racial groups and racial categories. We know that people of different racial groups have different appearances, and we also know that people don’t have [a] uniform, same appearance within groups — they vary. Some people have lighter skin or darker skin, and then the shape of our nose and our eyes can differ as well. But there are certain cues and markers that make us think about people’s appearances belonging to particular racial groups or not.

What I am interested in is the extent to which people use these features to decide what race a person is and how they categorize them … then also whether or not if they ultimately decide that somebody belongs to a particular racial group, does it matter how typical of the group they look? So, if you are an African American person that has light skin tone and straight hair, are you thought of in the same way as an African American person who has a dark skin tone and curly hair? What the research suggests is that we are sensitive to those differences. Even though we might call somebody Black, we don’t necessarily use the same stereotypes to make

KELVIN MA / TUFTS UNIVERSITY

Associate Professor of Psychology Keith Maddox is pictured. judgments about them; we use similar stereotypes but maybe not to the same degree for someone who is less physically typical of the group.

Another research area I’m interested in is getting people to talk about race and talk about racial bias. I want to encourage people who may be reticent to talk about racial bias … to feel more comfortable approaching those conversations. Usually, that focuses on white people and trying to get white people to feel comfortable talking about race, particularly with Black people. I focus on that dichotomy in a lot of the work that I do … in some ways, it does generalize to other group dimensions and other challenging and difficult topics and conversations. The other side of that is if you are a Black person and you want to confront [someone] about something that they might have said that could be biased or if you’re trying to convince them that you

know bias is a thing and that we need to address it. People of color tend to be seen much more negatively when they confront issues of racial bias compared to majority people. This is called backlash, and they are thought of as being self-interested and biased in their viewpoints. They are thought of as complainers in terms of … just explaining negative outcomes they may have had. Oftentimes what that does is it leads to discredit them personally, but also discredit the arguments that they’re making, too. We try to understand ways that people of color can confront in ways that are going to be valued.

TD: You study stereotyping and implicit bias; how do you think this summer of the Black Lives Matter movement has or will impact your research in the future?

KM: I’m not sure it will. It’s not changing what I do but maybe the idea of who we study.

[COVID-19] has prevented us from doing some of the in-person studies that we would typically do with undergraduate students at Tufts. It’s actually forcing us to do something that’s good, which is reaching out and trying to find broader and more representative populations. The problem with that is you have to do those online. Sometimes when you’re doing social psych research the in-person stuff allows you to sort of get at certain issues and certain questions that you can’t get at online, so it may limit, to some extent, some of the questions that we can ask, but the benefit is that it helps us reach a broader population.

So I can have a research study that includes people that would never ever come to my lab on campus at Tufts. So I guess there’s sort of trade-offs. Not to say that every Tufts student is like this, but Tufts students are younger, more liberal, and a little more issue-aware. If you’re

thinking about a population that you can reach via the internet, there’s going to be some education and access issues that get in the way there. But in general, they’re just broader. They’re more diverse than what a Tufts student or a population of Tufts students would be … hopefully, that’ll help us to generalize some of our research.

One other thing [is that] I and another professor, Sam Sommers, do bias workshops. In these workshops, we try to raise people’s awareness of implicit bias to get them to see their role in helping to create organizational change and more systemic change. The idea is that most people don’t like to think of themselves as being biased or racist or sexist, but implicit bias is tricky. It is this way of getting people to recognize that some of the biases are not things they are aware of, and hence, they could still influence their judgement behavior. The biases that we have that are implicit … [and] come from the broader culture and the messages that we get about people and about groups based on how they represent them. All of these things are subject to historical factors and not necessarily one person’s bias, but lots of individual biases that have built up over time. These societal biases have helped to create disparities in outcomes and disparities in opportunities.

It does really go against our egalitarian sense and our norms that we need to think about treating people fairly. So, we try to get people to realize that although implicit biases might be outside of your control, and you may not think of them as being your fault, the idea is that we can still work to make our judgments and to make our procedures and processes more just. We have done this for a long time, but I think people are more into it now and starting to get the message. Because of [Black Lives Matter] and post-George Floyd, we are getting more requests [for trainings]; people are starting to recognize some of the relevance of it a little bit more, and so that’s potentially going to make us a little bit more busy.

My own workload has been ridiculous because … people of color on campus are relatively underrepresented. We’ve always been going through these sorts of efforts to try to think about how race and gender and ethnicity and other aspects of identity and underrepresentation impact people’s lives on campus … If we’re going to have a committee to talk about this, we need to have people of color who are represented on that committee. These efforts have happened at Tufts before, so I have become a little tired and jaded … but the intensity now see MADDOX , page 4

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Features | Wednesday, September 16, 2020

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Psychology professor Maddox shared COVID-19 impact on research, teaching MADDOX

continued from page 3 feels a little bit different. It feels like people are more on board with actually making change, so I am cautiously optimistic, but I am still a little defensive.

Because I’m on a ridiculous number of committees in terms of trying to address these things … that would ostensibly affect me, which means that I have less time to do the stuff that I came here to do, which is to do research and teach and interact with students.

TD: Pivoting now toward your teaching and Zoom. How do you think it is going for your classes?

KM: I have two relatively small classes. It’s really too early to tell because we haven’t gotten into the rhythm of the semester yet … but, so far, it’s going OK. There are some upsides to

Zoom in terms of speaking to and connecting to some extent with students. These are things that I probably would not have spent time doing standing in front of them in a room because everybody’s there waiting for me … but now, since everyone is at home and comfortable …

I don’t feel as much pressure to have everything at the ready.

I’ll take some diversions and things like that from time to time to go to find a website or to look up some information or walk them through something that I wouldn’t have done normally in class … People can hear me well, I can see [faces] for the most part and get a sense of how people are responding … I have to admit that I’m not as concerned or not as dismayed about having to do things this way.

Another thing is I am perennially late to class. I am usually in my office getting ready for class and lose track of time before I have to walk over to the classroom. But now, that doesn’t happen as much anymore … I’m getting ready for class right up until class.

I will say I am still figuring some things out. You can think and plan through everything, but at the end of the day, you still have to be flexible. I have a sketch of how I want things to go, I’ll give it a shot for the first couple weeks and see how it goes.

But I’m always up for revision. I say that knowing that students need some sense of stability … it’s important to sort of have a structure in mind but also be willing to be flexible about that structure for students.

TD: At the beginning you mentioned you’ve been a pro-

fessor here for a long time. How do you keep things exciting and interesting?

KM: In terms of content, you need to update the course material to match the current knowledge. Technology and resources have changed a lot over the years … I’m going to figure out a way to start using Tik Tok videos a little bit more in some of my classes. You have the development of social media and the types of things you can share. For a while, I had sections in my stereotyping and prejudice class [interact on] a Facebook page … when people were using [the platform].

The idea was that people would have discussions on Facebook … they could post a meme, or they could post an article that they saw or they read, and people could talk about that in the

context of Facebook. I’ve been using Canvas a bit more to try to make sure that students don’t have to go to 50 different places in order to participate in the course. Now, there are ways to [track] student engagement … with data that’s more reliable than just using your memory that helped me to make adjustments and changes to how I go about approaching topics.

TD: Any final thoughts or comments to the Tufts student body?

KM: It is so important to remember that this is a real public health crisis. The plan Tufts has in place is strong, but it is going to require everyone to follow the guidelines and regulations. Hopefully, people remember that as well. As their faculty should have compassion for them, they should have compassion for their faculty, too.

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Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Wolf x Rose brings sustainability, well-being to the undergarment industry

by Colette Smith Arts Editor

Wolf x Rose by Prophetik is an up-and-coming underwear brand that sustainably makes non-toxic products from soft hemp. The company’s goal is for as many people as possible to have access to its non-toxic underwear to help prevent prostate and breast cancer, which can be caused by toxic dyes and chemicals with carcinogenic properties found in other underwear brands. To combat this serious issue, American fashion designer Jeff Garner founded the Wolf x Rose brand.

Garner is far from a novice in the fashion industry. A pioneer and unconventional designer, Garner has had experience dressing and designing for celebrities including Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Nick Jonas. He founded the fashion label Prophetik, which has the goal of providing sus-

tainable luxury fashion. Garner also worked on and received an Emmy for “Remastered,” (2018) his documentary which discusses the dangers of fast fashion. From his point of view, he “founded Wolf x Rose to allow more people to touch, feel, and [understand] the difference in toxic-free clothing.” “[We] also pull energy from history in [the] designs … [we] believe that at one time design served more of a productive functionality than the smoke and mirror efforts of today. [Therefore], marrying beauty and function is key for the future,” the Wolf x Rose team wrote in an email to the Daily.

One of the most important aspects of the underwear is that it is made from soft hemp. Wolf x Rose uses a California-based fabric supplier who sources hemp that was grown, processed and spun in China or Canada.

Similarly, when possible, the dyes used on the material are provid-

ed locally from organic farmers in Tennessee or Malibu. The soft hemp is an ideal product for the underwear as it holds its shape because it is the most durable and the strongest natural fiber. Soft hemp is also porous, which allows for great breathability and offers antimicrobial properties. On top of all that, the fabric is very soft and comfortable to wear.

While the garments from Wolf x Rose are beneficial to our health, they also have many benefits for the Earth’s health.

The materials that Wolf x Rose uses are free from toxic dyes and chemicals which traditionally pollute the environment in other apparel production. The company also shows its commitment to the environment in its packaging, which is minimalistic and compostable. Wolf x Rose combats the environmental issues associated with distribution by using carbon neutral shipping methods. The team at Wolf x Rose explained how consumers can

be more conscious when making their purchases in an email to the Daily.

“Ideally, the consumer would need to educate themselves in that certain product and the ingredients that make up that product, then diligently research to see how close that certain product falls within the parameters of sustainability. Marketing has been diluting our perceptions of commerce for hundreds of years and will continue to do so. We think the heart and intent of the brand or designer should also be looked at … The simplest advice is to just ask questions and flip over the tag or label and view the makeup,” the team wrote.

Wolf x Rose surpassed its $15,000 goal on Kickstarter by raising $17,950 from 147 backers. The garment company plans on launching its sustainable, soft hemp underwear at London Fashion Week 2020.

The only product the company is selling now is under-

wear, but the brand does plan on expanding in the future, according to the team.

“Wolf X Rose Prophetik Intimates will ideally spread to … other areas like … teenage training bras, women’s yoga pants, etc. The idea is to make the best solution out of the most natural fabrications and dyes to fit the need of the everyday conscious individual,” the team said.

More information about Wolf x Rose can be found on its Kickstarter campaign or the company’s Instagram page. This underwear brand is an exciting example of an ongoing trend to change the ways of the fashion industry, the world’s second largest pollution contributor. But, since consumers are the largest factor in deciding the direction of the fashion industry, their purchases must be done with the environment and their health in mind to encourage the market to offer more products like the Wolf x Rose underwear.

Despite virtual format, Boston Book Festival lineup to provide powerful content

by Devina Bhalla Arts Editor

Boston Book Festival (BBF) completed its rollout of its 2020 festival last week. It will take place online from Oct. 5–25, with programming that includes over 55 live and pre-recorded sessions and 143 presenters and moderators from 21 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, the United Kingdom and Kenya.

BBF is usually a weekend packed with hundreds of presenters, fairs and patrons. However, as most large festivals are doing, they moved to a virtual platform.

Though Executive Director Norah Piehl has mixed feelings about not being able to do the event in person, there are some advantages to doing it online.

One benefit is that presenters and moderators that might not usually be able to travel to Boston for a physical festival are able to hop online and be a part of the festival virtually.

“Something that is definitely special and different this year is that we’re getting to see authors and illustrators and poets and people from all over the place [where it would] ordinarily be a barrier to have them come to Boston,” Piehl said.

The festival will also be spread out over three weeks rather than all in one weekend, a change from past years. “This gives people a little more breathing room to sort of dip into what they are interested in, and hopefully people can take advantage of as much or as little of the programming that is meaningful and helpful to them,” Piehl said.

VIA BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL

A promotional poster for the Boston Book Festival is pictured.

However, the online platform does pose difficulties in connecting to the community.

Community is a central part of BBF, so it has employed different strategies to keep the community connection strong during a virtual festival.

On the technology front, BBF is using a platform called Crowdcast that Piehl believes will promote more interaction between attendees. There is a chat function, a polling function and a Q&A function where attendees can upvote other people’s questions.

BBF has also come up with a few physical elements to go along with their virtual programming to keep a community feel to the event. One is a continuation of their At Home Boston community-wide writing project that was launched early in the summer.

The project invited people around Boston to write about their quarantine experiences in 200-word mini-essays. During the run of the festival, BBF will be printing a selection of these mini-essays to put in store windows in the

Downtown Crossing area as a type of art installation.

“It will combine words and images and people can walk through this area … and consider these stories, and hopefully it will start conversation,” Piehl said.

BBF will also have two story walks aimed at young children and families. Each story walk will feature a picture book that will have its pages blown up and put in store windows in a similar fashion to the At Home Boston mini-essays. It will then provide maps so families can walk through the pages of the book, like a scavenger hunt reading experience.

The third physical element is a continuation of a program called the BBF Book Hunt that has been held in the past. The Book Hunt is where community members can sign up, get a book package with a presenter’s book, hide it in their neighborhood and then post a photo clue on Twitter that BBF will repost. Then other people can then go find the book and keep it for free.

“We wanted to bridge that distance between these virtual pro-

grams on the computer that can seem sort of isolating … [to] that real-world community experience that we know the book festival means to people in an ordinary year,” Piehl said.

The festival itself is timed right before the 2020 presidential election, so it has a lot of political or politically adjacent sessions.

Some of these include a session on election reform, activism and what it means to be politically active. Piehl believes these sessions will be especially interesting and relevant for attendees this year.

Within this heightened moment for social justice, BBF has further emphasized its priority of having diverse authors and voices. “[This is] a priority especially for the selection of presenters for young people, really making sure we’re offering a diversity of perspectives, that we’re bringing in authors who look like the audiences that they’re speaking to,” Piehl said. “We’re trying to give our attendees the tools that they

need to help diversify their own bookshelves.”

Boston’s two poet laureates — Porsha Olayiwola and Alondra Bobadilla — will also be brought together in a session at the festival. Bobadilla was elected Boston’s first youth poet laureate in 2020.

Other topics covered will include love and technology, pathogens and pills and women of color in the tech industry.

Piehl commented that for some, there is already a lot of heavy stuff in the world, so some of BBF’s programming offers an opportunity to step away from that. These include fiction sessions, a session about fairy tale and folk tale retellings and a non-fiction session about how to make good choices and embrace kindness.

“Our aspiration for putting together the program that we did is that we have really tried to … provide a wide range of experiences with books and reading,” Piehl said. “We have really tried to be thoughtful about that and reflect on what we’re hearing from people about what they need right now.”

Some headliner speakers include Natasha Trethewey, former U.S. poet laureate and author of her recent memoir “Memorial Drive: A Driver’s Memoir” (2020), Jerry Craft, cartoonist and illustrator who is best known for his syndicated newspaper comic strip “Mama’s Boyz,” Michael Murphy of Mass Design group who will hold a session about architecture and its role in calling attention to social justice issues and Michael Sandel, author of “The Tyranny of Merit” (2020).

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THE TUFTS DAILY | FUN & GAMES | Wednesday, September 16, 2020

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tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Rebecca: “I’m a knockoff RBG”

FUN & GAMES

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

SUDOKU

Virgo (Aug. 23–Sept. 22) As you gain strength, you gain options.

Make time for fresh air and exercise.

Pursue passion projects.

Take extra care of yourself. Recharge.

CORRECTION A previous version of the Editorial “Tufts must consider local residents’ concerns in proceeding with fall plans” incorrectly cited those attending the protest outside Gifford house. The editorial has been updated to reflect this change. The Daily regrets this error.

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Wednesday, September 16, 2020 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

US Open 2020: New champions crowned

Matt Goguen Keeping Up With the 617

The Mighty Fall, what went wrong for the Boston Bruins

by Pranav Jain Sports Editor

Andy Murray, making a monumental comeback to professional tennis after a career-threatening hip surgery, saved a match point and came back from two sets down to beat Yoshihito Nishioka in the first round of the 2020 U.S. Open. After the match, Murray fans erupted in applause for the former World No. 1. However, the camera displayed nothing but empty blue seats in the Arthur Ashe Stadium. The sound was captured and played

by IBM from last year’s U.S. Open. Instead of waving to his fans in the stadium, Murray waved to a giant screen placed in the stadium, serving as a virtual fan box. This year’s U.S. Open was, to say the least, unique.

When World No. 2 Rafael Nadal withdrew from the tournament citing health concerns regarding the pandemic, many questioned the capability of the U.S. Open organizers to conduct a safe tournament amid a public health crisis. “This is a decision I never wanted to take but I have decided to follow my heart this time and for the time being I [would] rather not travel,” the Spanish star said.

However, an endless amount of work was done behind the scenes to ensure the safety of all players. From implementing zonebased, passive radio-frequency identification chips for assistance in contact tracing to requiring all players and personnel to complete a health intake questionnaire for entry into the stadium, sufficient care and precautions were taken. U.S. Open Chief Medical Officer Dr. Alexis Colvin was very proud of the effort put in by all her staff. “To come from, just a couple of months ago, being in that environment in regard to COVID-19, and then come to help put on this event, it was pretty meaningful,” Colvin said.

There might not have been fans sitting in the U.S. Open stands, but the front rows of the Arthur Ashe Stadium displayed art reflecting on the Black Lives Matter movement. The sports world has been vocal in its support of the movement.

Professional tennis players — particularly athletes of color — have been speaking out about these issues and using their platforms to get more people to talk about them.

Former World No.1 Naomi Osaka wore seven different face masks for each round of the tournament. Each mask named a Black person whose death had been cited all around the world in nationwide protests.

From Breonna Taylor to George Floyd, Osaka said the masks were her way of using her platform to protest against racial injustice.

“Raising awareness — even on social media — will hopefully lead to more people talking about them,” Osaka said.

This year’s U.S. Open was marred with controversies, the most prominent one being World No. 1 and title favorite Novak Djokovic’s disqualification from his fourth-round match against Pablo Carreño Busta. Djokovic, frustrated after losing a point against Busta, smacked a ball behind him in frustration, accidentally hitting the line judge in her throat.

A United States Tennis Association statement said: “In accordance with the Grand Slam rule-book, following his actions of intentionally hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court or hitting a ball

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ANDREW HENKELMAN / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Naomi Osaka is pictured during her match against Victoria Azarenka in the 2020 US Open Finals on Sept. 12. with negligent disregard of the consequences, the tournament referee defaulted Novak Djokovic from the 2020 U.S. Open.”

Djokovic was quick to admit his mistake and acknowledged his reckless behavior on court. “This whole situation has left me really sad and empty,” he said. “I‘m extremely sorry to have caused her such stress. So unintended. So wrong … I apologize to the U.S. Open tournament and everyone associated for my behavior.” Djokovic’s disqualification ended his 29-match winning streak and paved the way for the touted “Next-Gen” superstars to taste the glory of a first Grand Slam win. Of the eight quarter-finalists in the men’s draw, six players were of age 24 and under.

27-year-old Dominic Thiem, who went on to win the tournament in a nail-biting final, said: “I think it was good for men’s tennis that there is a new face on the winning list,” Dominic Thiem, who went on to win the tournament in a nail-biting final, said.

While youngsters were making headlines in the men’s draw, the women’s draw saw nine mothers starting in the women’s singles draw. For the first time in the professional era, three moms advanced to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam. “I just have a totally new respect for moms. I would never have thought I would be playing as a mom … The [plus] is that, one day your daughter can say she was there,” former World No. 1 Serena Williams said.

“I don’t identify myself on the tennis court as a mother. I still identify myself as a tennis player,” former champion Victoria Azarenka said. “Me being in the quarterfinals, I didn’t get there by being a parent. I got there by being a tennis player.”

With all the ups and downs, controversies and uncertainties, the 2020 U.S. Open was a tournament which players and fans alike will never forget. Professional tennis is officially back.

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fter five grueling months without hockey, Boston Bruins fans rejoiced as the NHL restarted their 2019–20 campaign in two hub cities as 24 teams returned from their fellow quarantines to vie for the Stanley Cup. The Boston Bruins, who were the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference heading into the qualifiers, had high expectations coming into the bubble.

Prior to the postponement of the season, the Bruins were rolling — winners of five of their last six games. The perfection line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak was continuing their dominance, and Tuukka Rask was becoming a dark horse candidate for the prized Vezina Trophy. However, it seemed that the layoff affected the Bruins slightly more than their competition; they looked sluggish through the round-robin and fell to the No. 4 seed. To make matters worse, Tuukka Rask abruptly departed the bubble for a family emergency. The Bruins managed to pull a string of victories together to win the series against the Carolina Hurricanes but were eventually demolished at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who now have a clear path to the title. Here’s why the Boston Bruins played themselves into a crushing series loss: Goaltending As much as I love Jaroslav Halak and his value to the team, a backup goaltender can rarely lead your team to a Stanley Cup. He looked sharp in the Hurricanes series, but he was rarely placed in crunch time situations.

In the Lightning series, Halak was extremely inconsistent and was embarrassed in the 7–1 loss in Game 3. If Rask had been able to remain inside the bubble, the Bruins could’ve beaten the Lightning in seven games. Goaltending is a backbone for a championship team, and the Bruins simply didn’t have the talent between the pipes for another Cup run.

Penalty trouble The Bruins just couldn’t catch a break this series — they continued to make poor mistakes in the defensive zone, which led to lazy penalties. Although the Tampa power play was struggling prior to the beginning of this series, they lit up the scoreboard when on the man advantage. The discipline simply wasn’t there for the Bruins this year. It doesn’t take a genius to know that playing a man down isn’t an advantage.

Poor shot selection The Bruins are loaded with capable goal scorers. From Pastrnak to Jake DeBrusk and Ondrej Kase, they have an arsenal of players who can light the lamp from time to time.

However, they didn’t generate enough scoring chances. They chose shots from outside the circles and from the half wall — generally, these aren’t places where goals are scored.

They weren’t aggressive enough on their power plays and waited too long for the “perfect shot,” which inevitably never came. The Bruins shot themselves out of the season.

So, what’s next? The Bruins currently head into the offseason with multiple questions about their roster. Luckily, one was recently solved after Captain Zdeno Chara announced he will be returning for another season in a Bruins uniform. Torey Krug is currently an unrestricted free agent but has expressed interest in returning to the Bruins. This will be a quick reset for the Bruins; they need to secure a more winning mindset if they ever want to compete for a Stanley Cup in their prime.

Matt Goguen is a sophomore who has yet to declare a major. Matt can be reached at matthew.goguen@tufts.edu

8 Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Sports

tuftsdaily.com

NFL begins 101st season amid the COVID-19 pandemic

ALL-PRO REELS / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman is pictured on Oct. 6, 2019.

by Alex Sharp

Assistant Sports Editor

Chiefs offense looks scary in opener vs Texans The defending Super Bowl champions picked up right where they left off last season, defeating the Houston Texans 34–⁠20 in the NFL’s Thursday night opener.

After punting on their first possession, the Kansas City Chiefs scored on four consecutive drives to end the first half and begin the second. Chiefs quarterback Pat Mahomes was in MVP form, completing 24 of 32 passes for 211 yards and three touchdowns.

Travis Kelce, Sammy Watkins and Tyreek Hill each caught touchdowns. The potent Chiefs offense that was second in the NFL in points per game a year ago may be even better this year, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire is the reason why. Head coach Andy Reid gave the talented rookie running back out of LSU 25 carries, which he turned into 138 yards and a touchdown. Houston’s offense struggled to get going throughout the night. David Johnson was a lone bright spot in his Texans’ debut, rushing 11 times for 77 yards and a touchdown.

Joe Burrow makes NFL debut in Bengals’ loss to Chargers Last year’s Heisman Trophy winner and first overall draft pick Joe Burrow made his NFL debut with the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. Burrow threw for 193 yards and showed off his sneaky speed with eight rushes for 46 yards and a touchdown.

Down 16–⁠13 late in the fourth quarter, Burrow marched the Bengals down the field on a 14-play 69-yard drive to set up a game-tying 31-yard field goal attempt with seven seconds left.

Kicker Randy Bullock pushed it wide right, and the Los Angeles Chargers walked away with the victory.

Cam Newton wins Patriots debut Cam Newton, the 2015 NFL MVP, made his first start as the New England Patriots quarter-

back against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. Newton had an efficient day throwing the ball, completing 15 of his 19 passes for 155 yards. However, it was Newton the rusher that really gave the Dolphins headaches.

Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels drew up 15 designed rushes, which Newton turned into 75 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The Dolphins were haunted by turnovers as the Patriots defense that forced the most takeaways in the NFL a year ago picked off Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick three times. The Patriots won 21–⁠11.

Rodgers-Adams connection deadly in Packers win over Vikings Through a quarter and a half, the Packers-Vikings game looked like a defensive battle. Then the Green Bay Packers scored touchdowns on five of their next six possessions. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers was absolutely on fire, throwing for 364 yards and four touchdowns. His star target Davante Adams caught fourteen of those balls for 156 yards and two touchdowns. The Minnesota Vikings offense caught fire as well with quarterback Kirk Cousins finding Adam Thielen for a pair of second-half scores, but it was too little too late. The two teams combined to score touchdowns on six of the last seven drives of the game. The Packers won 43–⁠34.

Brady struggles against Saints in first game with Bucs The New Orleans Saints beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 34–⁠23 in Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady’s first game since leaving the New England Patriots. The much anticipated clash between NFC South division rivals and aging future hall of fame quarterbacks was FOX’s most watched Week 1 game since the 2016 season. Brady couldn’t have scripted the first drive of his Buccaneers career any better. The Buccaneers grinded out a flawless nine-play, 85 yard drive that was capped off by

a patented Brady QB sneak for six. After that, the Buccaneers offense stalled in a big way. The offense went three and out three times, and Brady threw two interceptions including a pick six to Saints cornerback Janoris Jenkins. The Saints offense capitalized on Buccaneer turnovers and consistently good field position in the victory. Quarterback Drew Brees threw touchdowns to Alvin Kamara and offseason acquisition Emmanuel Sanders.

Kamara, the dynamic running back who recently agreed on a five-year $75 million extension with the Saints, added another touchdown on the ground.

Questionable call dooms Mike McCarthy in Cowboys debut Mike McCarthy’s tendency to make questionable decisions in close games was part of the reason he lost his job as head coach of the Green Bay Packers two years ago. McCarthy was back at it again in his first game as the Dallas Cowboys head coach. With less than 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and the Cowboys trailing 20–⁠17, McCarthy elected to go for it on a fourth down and three at the Rams 11 yard line, rather than tie the game with a field goal. Dak Prescott completed a pass to CeeDee Lamb who got stuffed short of the first down marker, and the Cowboys turned the ball over on downs.

The Cowboys had another chance with under a minute left in the fourth quarter, but a 47-yard completion from Prescott to Michael Gallup that would have put the Cowboys well within field goal range was negated due to a controversial offensive pass interference call on Gallup. The Rams won 20–⁠17 in what was their first game in the brand new $5 billion SoFi stadium.

Steelers top Giants in Roethlisberger’s return New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones threw two costly interceptions in Monday

night’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers offense scored 10 points off the turnovers and won the game by 10, 26–16. After missing the majority of last season with a right elbow injury, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger looked sharp, throwing for 229 yards and three touchdowns. Receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster enjoyed the return of his quarterback, catching six balls for 69 yards and two touchdowns. The stalwart Steelers defense completely shut down Saquon Barkley, one of the best running backs in football.

Barkley rushed 15 times for just six yards, an average of 0.4 yards per carry.

Gostkowski hits the one that matters on Monday Night Football By all accounts, new Tennessee Titans kicker Stephen Gostowski was having the worst possible game for the Titans on Monday night against the Denver Broncos. In a tight game the kicker missed three field goals and an extra point. Trailing 14–⁠13 late in the fourth quarter, quarterback Ryan Tannehill and power running back Derrick Henry led the Titans on an 83 yard drive.

With 24 seconds left, the Titans couldn’t convert on a third down from the Broncos seven yard line, and Gostowski was called upon once again. This time Gostkowski drilled the football through the uprights, and the Titans won 16–⁠13. Whether or not he’ll still have his job tomorrow morning remains to be seen.

Other scores from around the NFL The Buffalo Bills defeated the New York Jets 27–⁠17. Bills quarterback Josh Allen threw for 312 yards and two touchdowns and added another 57 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Last year’s league MVP Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens crushed the Cleveland Browns 38–⁠6. Jackson threw for 275 yards and three touchdowns.

The Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Indianapolis Colts 27–⁠20.

Quarterback Gardner Minshew threw three touchdowns for the Jaguars. The Colts lost running back Marlon Mack for the season after he suffered a torn achilles in the second quarter. Nyheim Hines played well in Mack’s absence, scoring two touchdowns for the Colts.

A strong defensive performance led the Washington Football Team to a 27–⁠17 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.

Washington’s defense sacked Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz eight times and forced three Eagles turnovers in the win. The Eagles went up 17–⁠0 to start the game before Washington scored 27 unanswered points.

Detroit Lions rookie running back D’Andre Swift dropped what would have been the game winning touchdown with 11 seconds left in the Lions’ 27–⁠23 loss

to the Chicago Bears. The Bears trailed 23–⁠6 before quarterback Mitchell Trubisky threw three fourth quarter touchdowns.

Russel Wilson put on a clinic, and the Seattle Seahawks beat the Atlanta Falcons 38–⁠25. Wilson completed 31 of 35 passes for 322 yards and a touchdown in the Seahawks’ victory. Three Falcons receivers, Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley and Russell Gage, went over 100 yards in the loss.

The Las Vegas Raiders defeated the Carolina Panthers 34–⁠30 behind three touchdowns from running back Josh Jacobs. Jacobs’ third touchdown put the Raiders up for good with four minutes left in the fourth quarter.

The Arizona Cardinals beat the reigning NFC champion San Francisco 49ers 24–⁠20.

DeAndre Hopkins showed why he just became the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history, catching 14 balls for 151 yards. Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray torched the 49ers defense on the ground, rushing 13 times for 91 yards including a crucial 22 yard fourth quarter touchdown.

Masks on The NFL’s opening weekend was played mostly without fans, although some teams allowed fans at a limited capacity. Coaches and referees wore masks, or in Andy Reid’s case, a face shield that appeared to fog up throughout the Chiefs’ Thursday night victory. The NFL apparently was not pleased with some coaches’ lack of compliance with the mask mandate and sent out a memo threatening punishment if coaches don’t mask up on the sidelines.

Player protests Players around the league protested police brutality and systemic racism in some form over the weekend. Many players took a knee during the national anthem. Both the Jets and Bills decided to stay in the locker room during the anthem. After the ball was kicked off in the Falcons-Seahawks game, every player on the field stood still then took a knee. The Miami Dolphins released a team video in which they criticized perceived hypocrisy from the NFL in their response to social justice movements.

The NFL played a social justice video before each game which called for an end to racism and featured Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback who has been out of the league since 2016, when he began kneeling during the anthem to protest systemic racism. Kaepernick’s friend and the second player to kneel with him Eric Reid tweeted “[NFL commissioner] Roger Goodell uses video of Colin courageously kneeling to legitimize their disingenuous PR while simultaneously perpetuating systemic oppression, that the video he’s using fights against, by continuing to rob Colin of his career. It’s diabolical.”