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Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Tufts supports Afghan student community amid ongoing crisis by Anton Shenk News Editor
As Tufts community members impacted by the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan grapple with the ongoing crisis, community members have worked tirelessly to support students and address the lack of on-campus engagement around the issue. Andrew Shiotani, director of Tufts International Center, has been one community member closely engaging with impacted students — supporting Afghan students through academic, financial and mental health challenges. The International Center has been particularly focused on assisting two new students from Afghanistan. Tufts support of community members impacted by the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan drew increased attention, including an email acknowledgement by University President Anthony Monaco, as the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks neared. “While recent events in Afghanistan have undoubtedly caused us all to take pause and reflect, Tufts is committed to supporting our students and scholars from the region, and as part of the larger higher education community, working to ensure that scholars, especially women, receive a safe haven to continue their scholarly pursuits in the true spirit of academic freedom,”
EVAN SAYLES / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES
The Tufts International Center supports international students, scholars, employees and their dependents throughout their time at Tufts. Monaco wrote to the Tufts community. In addition to the array of administrative departments mobilizing to support students in the spirit of President Monaco’s message, Tufts students and organizations have also mobilized, according to Tufts’ South Asian Regional Committee (SARC).
“Many students and student groups have also either conducted their own fundraisers or committed time and effort to raising money for external fundraisers to help the Afghan people,” SARC shared in an email to the Daily. SARC is optimistic that community events focusing on the Afghanistan crisis will pro-
vide a chance for students to become more informed on the region. “Any lack of engagement or discourse on the crisis at Tufts could likely be attributed to a lack of awareness or understanding of the crisis, so we are hopeful that these planned events will help foster further discourse and broaden students’
understanding of the crisis,” SARC said. Perhaps contributing to the lack of knowledge about the crisis is Tufts’ limited student enrollment from the region. According to the Tufts University Fact Book, a compilation of characteristics of Tufts’ student
by Marianna Schantz
also hosted at Beijing Normal University and which started in the summer of 2020 to accommodate Chinese international students during COVID-19, is continuing this fall. “Unfortunately, we are canceling our Tufts in Beijing program due to visa processing,” Ghosh said. “Students are preparing for spring programs, and we are hoping countries begin to reopen travel and the pandemic restrictions ease when appropriate.” According to Melanie Armstrong, assistant director of Tufts Global Education, the university decided to defer a few programs that would normally operate in the fall to the spring due to country-specific travel conditions and local conditions. These programs include Tufts in Chile, Tufts in Ghana and Tufts in Japan.
see AFGHANISTAN, page 3
Study abroad programs resume with COVID-19 restrictions News Editor
COURTESY SUSAN WANG
A London street is pictured, taken by alumna Susan Wang during her time in England, where she got stuck when the COVID-19 pandemic struck during her semester abroad.
As students who plan on studying abroad in the fall semester are gearing up for their trips, many programs are proceeding as planned, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Mala Ghosh, associate dean and senior director of Tufts Global Education, said that it is exciting to watch students return to study abroad programs. “Students have been arriving at our Tufts Programs Abroad centers in Paris, Madrid, London, and Tübingen as well as beginning other study abroad programs with various partners across Europe,” Ghosh wrote in an email to the Daily. The university is also operating Tufts in Oxford, which is set to begin next month. Tufts in Beijing will not be continuing this semester. Tufts@BNU, however, which is
ARTS / page 5
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Emmy roasts Emmys
Arming survey detracts from conversations about radical changes in policing
Cross country sprints past competition at Bates
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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, September 22, 2021
THE TUFTS DAILY Madeleine Aitken Editor in Chief
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Cunningham plans to leverage Tisch’s educational, research, outreach capabilities to the fullest
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by Chloe Courtney Bohl
Dayna Cunningham is the new Pierre and Pamela Omidyar dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life. She arrives at Tufts after working as a civil rights attorney and founding the Community Innovators Lab (CoLab) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her credentials include an undergraduate degree from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, a J.D. from New York University School of Law and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Cunningham hopes to leverage the research and community power of Tisch College to address the interrelated problems of climate change, public health crises, wealth disparities and racial divides. “I think Tisch is a perfect place to…sound a clarion call around the importance of institutional transformation, equipping our governing and civic and business institutions to better meet this moment that we are coming into of a multiracial society,” Cunningham said. As dean, Cunningham works to ensure that the various branches of Tisch College have the resources and support they need to function. In addition to that work, Cunningham sees herself as responsible for “attending to the mission” of the college. She must answer the question, in her words, of, “After you announce these aspirational
ideas, how do you actually create strategies to implement them?” Cunningham emphasized that Tisch’s mission is critical to responding to today’s political and social issues. “We’ve all lived through the pandemic, we’ve all lived through Black Lives Matter, we’ve all lived through January 6 and we’re all watching this current administration struggle from a governance perspective to address problems that have solutions,” Cunningham said. “There is a solution to this pandemic, but public will is not there. For years, my work has focused on problems that have solutions, but don’t have public will. But never, ever has it been so widespread and clear as it is right now.” According to a June 7 TuftsNow article, Cunningham’s work at MIT’s CoLab promoted equitable development and helped marginalized communities achieve democratic control over their economies through urban planning and development initiatives. Cunningham explained how this work prepared her for her new position as Dean. “What we are doing [at CoLab] is supporting, through development planning, the strengthening of civic infrastructure, and through our connections to civic infrastructure, strengthening the case for communities determining their own development trajectory,” Cunningham said. “That is the core learning that I am bringing to Tisch: that community knowledge is an essential resource for building democratic
societies, that civic infrastructure is an indispensable resource for building democracy and that the strongest and most reliable pathway to all of that … is civically committed higher education institutions.” Cunningham spoke about what distinguishes Tisch College and Tufts from other institutions of higher education. “A lot of higher education institutions exist behind high walls with very, very high tuition,” she said. “They take up a lot of real estate in the community, and they almost literally physically turn their backs on [the] community. And I think Tufts … every day distinguishes itself for something different than that. And Tisch is a real leader within Tufts around opening itself up, welcoming in partnerships [and] having a view towards co-creating essential and necessary knowledge with communities.” James Glaser, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, led the search committee for the dean of Tisch College position. He discussed the qualities and experience the committee looked for when interviewing candidates. “We were really looking for a distinctive leader for a distinctive place — someone who could understand and champion the values of Tisch College,” Glaser said. “And we were looking for somebody who could be a strong voice externally, beyond Tufts, on the various issues that Tisch College participates in.” Diane Ryan, associate dean for programs and administration
at Tisch College, who participated in the search committee for the deanship, shared how Dean Cunningham stood out from other candidates during the search process. “Her experience greatly complements what we do, but also provides us opportunities for growth in those areas,” Ryan said. “I was just very blown away … with [her] very thoughtful approach to many of the questions that we asked her, and I could see her making a relatively seamless transition to the university leadership.” As dean, Cunningham will oversee Tisch College’s research institutions, which include the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education and the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group. Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of CIRCLE, discussed how Dean Cunningham’s appointment will impact research at Tisch College. “I’m confident that she will really be supportive of the kind of high impact research that CIRCLE hopes to do by leveraging communities’ knowledge and expertise, especially [that of] young people,” Kawashima-Ginsberg said. “We’re just starting our relationship, but I can’t really imagine a better Dean, especially from my position as an applied research center director, to really think about … both the importance of rigor and [the] importance of impact with community.”
TRASHING ONE EGG WASTES 55 GALLONS OF WATER
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Wednesday, September 22, 2021 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY
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Student groups respond to crisis in Afghanistan AFGHANISTAN
continued from page 1 body, Tufts sponsored just one student visa from Afghanistan in fall 2020, for a member of the Fletcher School. Student enrollment from the Middle East and North Africa is also low. According to Shiotani, it’s difficult to attribute limited student enrollment from the region to just one factor. “I think enrollment is affected by a complex of factors,” Shiotani said in an email to the Daily. “The International Center monitors the impact of US visa and immigration policy and operations on student enrollment trends, but enrollment can also be affected by demographic factors (population size, the overall size of the college-attending population); economic and political conditions in a particular country or region; the
strength of alumni networks and historical connections and relationships with schools and colleges in the country or region; [and] home country and US government support for international education, including the availability of scholarship opportunities.” Despite the limited student representation on campus, clubs and organizations are working to elevate Afghan voices to educate community members. One such effort — done collaboratively between Tufts’ Middle East Research Group (MERG) and SARC — has included a symposium covering U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, regional implications of Taliban control and the impact of Taliban control on Afghan women. “Given the significance of this moment and the lack of
adequate news coverage and discussion on campus and across the country, we are currently organizing a symposium for September 23rd and 24th to cover different aspects of the current situation,” sophomore Zack Burpee and junior Carolina Hidalgo-McCabe, co-presidents of MERG, said on behalf of the club in an email to the Daily. “We wish to provide a forum for regional experts, activists, and most importantly Afghan voices to share their perspective with the Tufts community.” Tufts’ response to the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan has also drawn attention to how the university traditionally supports international students impacted by crises in their home countries, most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. Shiotani added that this most recent crisis is hardly
the first mobilization of university resources to support the international community at Tufts. “Unfortunately, members of the international community can be and have been affected by different kinds of crises in their home countries – including natural disasters, civil unrest, and other humanitarian crises,” Shiotani said. “More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has only magnified the effects of these events, while being a major threat in and of itself to the safety and wellbeing of our students and their family, friends, and neighbors. The International Center’s response in such situations varies somewhat depending [on] the specific situation, but we’ll always make efforts to reach out, and be available to advise and work with students
either individually or collectively regarding their specific needs and concerns.” As Afghanistan enters its second month under Taliban control — with a mounting economic crisis — impacted South Asian students from the region have relied on one another for support. “There definitely has been discussion about the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan going on amongst Tufts students and specifically South Asian Tufts Students, most prominently on social media,” SARC wrote. “As South Asian students, the crisis in Afghanistan certainly hits close to home for many of us and there is no one way to process it, but it is clear that most of us are committed to engaging in discourse surrounding the crisis and searching for ways to help.”
Study abroad participants face unique challenges STUDY ABROAD
continued from page 1 “We are monitoring conditions in these locations to determine the feasibility of operating each program in spring 2022,” Armstrong said in an email to the Daily. Tufts has various students participating in external study abroad programs in nine countries, while other countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, are not currently allowing travelers to enter their borders. Despite the continuation of most programs, there are still travel restrictions and COVID-19 protocols that vary country. “There are a wide range of travel conditions and restrictions that have variously been implemented by host-country governments that will have implications for travelers: vac-
cination and/or negative testing requirements, mandated post-arrival quarantine periods, cancellation or rescheduling of flights [and] delays in the processing of passports and visas,” Armstrong said. Local COVID-19 transmission levels and regional prohibitions on travel as well as testing, treatment, vaccine and mask mandates will have an impact on students’ experience abroad. “We are relying on our students to be adaptable, patient, and resourceful in order to deal with these ongoing challenges,” Armstrong said. Sabrina Wen said that COVID19 has not affected her experience with Tufts in Madrid thus far. “I was a bit worried about COVID hindering my experience,” Wen, a senior, wrote in an email to the Daily. “I feel like
I’m able to do a lot of the things I would have been able to do pre-COVID, just with a mask on now. I also think restrictions will loosen up while I’m abroad since Spain and Madrid in particular are steadily increasing their vaccination rates.” Wen explained that Tufts in Madrid students must wear a mask indoors. Additionally, she and her host family must take at-home COVID-19 tests every week. Though Tufts in Madrid is allowing students to travel to other countries, Wen said she plans to stick with local travel until the COVID-19 situation improves in other European countries. According to Ghosh, the program directors have created new opportunities for local travel for Tufts students in their host countries.
“Our Tufts Programs Abroad directors have crafted creative new cultural experiences, local travel excursions, field visits, and will offer more individual opportunities for travel within each country where it is allowed,” Ghosh said. According to Armstrong, Tufts Global Education instituted a requirement for all study abroad participants to be vaccinated prior to the start of their program, regardless of whether or not the program is through Tufts. Many countries require vaccination before travelers enter their borders as well. As for the external programs, Tufts has remained in communication with partners abroad regarding health, safety and security. “We also independently make our own risk assess-
ments of each location abroad in collaboration with Tufts Global Operations and the International Travel Review Committee,” Ghosh said. “Tufts does reserve the right to cancel or suspend study abroad for students on external programs based on local conditions or international travel concerns.” Ghosh mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic brings many new challenges and protocols for students and administrators alike regarding international travel and education. “This has been a global crisis on a scale that we have never experienced and international education has been hit very hard,” Ghosh said. “We will continue to navigate the impact, adapt, innovate with new models, and advocate for international education.”
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Features
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Michael Ullman looks back on 45 years of teaching by Katie Furey Features Editor
Few people know Tufts as well as Michael Ullman, senior lecturer of English and music, who expects to retire soon. Ullman spent much of his childhood exploring the Medford/Somerville campus, as his father started working as a professor of sociology at Tufts in 1946, one year after Ullman was born. To this day, Ullman proudly keeps a plaque of his father’s first Tufts contract on his desk in the Granoff Music Center. “I more or less grew up here,” Ullman said. “My parents lived in what’s now the Humanities Center for some years. When I was a kid, this whole street, Professors Row, was little tiny houses inhabited by professors.” Ullman first came to Tufts as a professor 45 years ago in 1976. “I had a three-year visiting assistant professorship at [Boston College], and then I was just looking around, and Tufts needed a nonfiction writer … I looked in the catalog and they had this thing called nonfiction writing, which no one had taught in years, so I revived it.” Ever since he was a child, Ullman knew he was interested in music and literature, and he feels grateful that he has been able to work at the intersection of those two passions throughout his career. “The two things I always wanted to do was read and listen to music, so you could call it pure egotism that I wanted to do both things,” Ullman said. One of the first times Ullman found himself professionally intertwining his interests in English and music was through writing an article about jazz for Boston Magazine. “I was at a party and I met an editor at Boston Magazine… I said, ‘You never write anything about jazz … would you like me to write an article about jazz?’ He said, ‘Okay, take it on spec,’ which means they don’t pay you if they don’t publish it, and he really liked it, and it was published.” The success of that article prompted the editor of the New Boston Review, now the Boston Review, to call Ullman, asking
if Ullman would write a series of articles. Within a year, Ullman was writing his own column called Michael Ullman and Jazz in the The New Republic. “Honestly, that part of my career was just so easy that it seems astonishing to me now,” Ullman said. “So they hired me here [at Tufts] on the basis of my column in The New Republic, I think.” Ullman noted that one major moment in his career was when he was working at Tufts but was offered a job at The Boston Globe. “The turning point in my career is literally when I was being paid part-time [at Tufts], and I had an offer at The Boston Globe to be their jazz critic, and they were to pay me twice what they were here, so I went to the deans and the provost, and that’s when they made me full time in order to keep me,” Ullman said. Ullman has worked at Tufts ever since and has cherished his many years spent in the classroom with students. “It’s very stimulating to me, to meet new people, the challenge of meeting new people, the challenge of communicating with them,” Ullman said. “What a joy really — I get a whole bunch of kids together and I talk about what I’m interested in.” According to Ullman, one of his most unforgettable moments as a professor was a specific question asked by one of his students several decades ago regarding why Ullman was teaching jazz. “In one of my first classes, a young African American kid — we later became good friends — raised his hand and said, ‘How are you teaching this class? You’re a white person?’ Peowple shuddered… But I thought it was a really good question, and if I don’t have an answer to it, I shouldn’t be teaching,” Ullman said. Ullman addressed the student’s question by using an example about a singer the class had just been talking about. “So I said, ‘You know, we were just listening to Bessie Smith’ — who’s a blues singer from the ‘20s — and I say, ‘She’s a woman. You’re a man. How could you possibly understand what she is going through in the ‘20s?'”
KATIE FUREY / THE TUFTS DAILY
Michael Ullman is a writer and critic as well as a senior lecturer in the Department of English and the Department of Music at Tufts University. Ullman said. “I think I do what you do, which is I’ve interviewed hundreds — literally hundreds — of musicians, and I listen to what they say. I read everything I can that’s written. I listen, and for the rest of it, I use my imagination, and I think that’s what you do.” More than 40 years after that interaction, Ullman finds himself sad to end his time at Tufts but looks forward to having more time to spend writing a 16-page article for Fanfare every other
month and hanging out with his grandkids when they are not in school. He hopes, if nothing else, that his students remember him by his kindness. “Every year they interview seniors, and of course, I wish people would say, ‘Oh he’s life changing…’ But I remember one year, three kids in a row said, ‘He’s the kindest person at Tufts,’ so I thought that, okay, that’s good,” Ullman said. “Maybe I don’t change their lives intellectually, but at least I was kind.”
Looking back, Ullman acknowledges how appreciative he is of the uniqueness of his job as well as the Tufts community. “I’m just very grateful for a very unusual job,” Ullman said. “There is no other job like mine in the country. As a kid, I wanted to do two things, and I’ve been able to do it, and not a lot of people can say that. And I do it at a place where students are smart and engaged. It’s just been a joy.”
Arts & Pop Culture
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Wednesday, September 22, 2021
‘Golden hour faded black’: ‘Star-Crossed’ and Kacey Musgraves’ magnificent rebound by Jack Clohisy
Assistant Arts Editor
Dusk came quickly for Kacey Musgraves soon after winning Album of the Year at the Grammys for her glistening piece “Golden Hour” (2018). Divorce meant the bitter end for Musgraves’ most acclaimed era, and with the glow of her iridescent fourth LP fading behind her, it was time for Musgraves to pick up the pieces and pioneer forward. Despite the vicissitude, pain turned to progress, and Musgraves stitched back together her broken heart with “Star-Crossed” (2021). Inspired by the structure of Greek tragedies, Musgraves reached deep within herself to discern the causes of her own heartbreak and connect them to the tragedies of others. As Musgraves displayed with “Golden Hour,” she has a way of universalizing her own experiences. Her track “What Doesn’t Kill Me” perfectly summarizes, “Golden hour faded black,” and now it’s time to build back up. Opening with the cinematic title track, Musgraves cuts straight to the point: “Let me set the scene/ Two lovers ripped right at the seams.” With a build of electric guitars and a choir filling the air with “oohs” and “ahhs,” Musgraves pulls back the curtains as the show begins. Bargaining is one of the five stages of grief, and Musgraves is stuck in this headspace on “Good Wife.” She cries, “God, help me be a good wife/ ‘Cause he needs me,” but follows with her next track, “Cherry Blossom,” singing, “I’m your cherry blossom, baby/ Don’t let me blow away.” There’s parallelism between the perspectives in these two tracks: one longing to keep her partner, another longing for her partner to want her. Her ethereal vocals are on full display as she fades in and out while cutting in to highlight the pain and loss she experienced as her marriage declined. As “Simple Times” rolls in, Musgraves is ready to take a break. “Wish that I could put this game on pause/ Skip this round, take the headset off,” she laments, as the hardship she faces is all consuming. This chapter is unpleasant, and Musgraves reminisces on the “Simple Times” she had. The electronic flows of “Cherry Blossom” permeate into “Simple Times,” continuing to seamlessly flow between scenes in her tragedy. Her attention to detail is significant, putting meticulous emphasis on the bittersweet reflection of her marriage.
COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Kacey Musgraves’ new album, “Star-Crossed,” came out on Sept. 10. Next, Musgraves digs out her roots on “If This Was a Movie..” referencing her debut album “Same Trailer Different Park” (2013). She alludes, “I’d be your silver lining/ Not a cloud full of rain,” tying back to her 2013 track “Silver Lining” where she prophesizes, “But if you’re ever gonna find a silver lining/ It’s gotta be a cloudy day.” Note that there’s no rain in her 2021 rendition, as she closes out the track by realizing, “We’d fall back into place/ If this was a movie/ But it’s not a movie.” True Musgraves fans will notice this allusion, and it’s worth noting the ill-fated advice she told herself eight years prior only to have this love, as the title track says, “ripped right at the seams.” As the album progresses, Musgraves begins the long journey to recovery and coming to terms with her heartbreak. In “Justified,” though she expresses, “Healin’ doesn’t happen in a straight line,” she acknowledges, “I shoulda treat-
ed you right.” In an interview with Zane Lowe, she explains that it takes two to reach a marriage’s end, so both are entitled to their own hurting and reconciliation, as “Justified” perfectly demonstrates. Musgraves continues her reflection on what could’ve been with “Angel.” She mourns, “You’d only get the best of me/ I’d nevеr make you wanna leave.” Some love isn’t forever, and for Musgraves, the sun has set. In “Breadwinner,” Musgraves dives into masculine insecurity. With the success Musgraves has achieved, it’s hard to find any man to size up to her accomplishments. She warns, “He wants your shimmer/ To make him feel bigger/ Until he starts feeling insecure.” If he’s insecure about Musgraves’ success, “Breadwinner” lets him know that he’d better take his love somewhere else. The next two tracks, “Camera Roll” and “Easier Said” pack a more melancholic punch. When only the bright
moments are captured on film, the camera roll can be a deadly place to scroll. One of the most poetic lines in the entire body of work, “Chronological order ain’t nothing but torture,” strikes hard on “Camera Roll.” Musgraves isn’t ready to hit delete, and this painful recollection is agonizing. Attempting to push past this heartbreak, Musgraves notes, “It ain’t easy to love someone/ I’ve been tryin’ and I found out/ That it’s easier said than done” on “Easier Said.” As she emphasized in “Justified,” the process of healing is a rollercoaster, and in “Hookup Scene,” Musgraves reflects that while searching for temporary love, “You get your fill and leave empty.” She’s craving a connection she’s lost, and realizing that there were situations she could’ve worked through in her marriage. However, she begins to transcend this heartbreak in “Keep Lookin’ Up,” “What Doesn’t Kill Me” and “There is a Light.”
The most emphatic lines from these three tracks exist within “What Doesn’t Kill Me,” when Musgraves exclaims, “Golden hour faded black … What doesn’t kill me/ Better run.” She’s dusting off the ash from her scorched love, and she will continue to “keep lookin’ up” despite seeing “true love turn into pain.” Closing out the album with a rendition of Violeta Parra’s song “Gracias a la Vida,” Musgraves is grateful for life, which has provided her with so much love and light. Musgraves has overcome the immense challenge of returning from her greatest success and darkest heartbreak effortlessly with “Star-Crossed.” For that, she brings to the table a stunning album filled with devastating lows, all while ascending to empyrean heights once again upon conclusion. The piece feels complete, and her decision to structure the album so particularly to follow a tragic arc highlights both her growth as an artist and commitment to pushing the boundaries of music.
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THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Pop Culture | Wednesday, September 22, 2021
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The Emmys disappoint with COVID-19 concerns and questionable wins
COURTESY CBS
The 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best U.S. prime time television shows, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. by Emmy Wenstrup Assistant Arts Editor
After a painfully long threehour ceremony stuffed with awful sketches, lengthy acceptance speeches and questionable wins, television’s biggest night is finally over. Allow me, also named Emmy, to walk you through this year’s Emmys. As Seth Rogen pointed out in his presentation of the first award, the ceremony did not seem to be COVID-conscious. “They said this was outdoors,” he said. “It’s not. They lied to us. We’re in a hermetically sealed tent right now. I would not have come to this.” Despite the show’s later attempt (defensive rambling from DJ Reggie Watts) to assure viewers it was safe, the venue seemed quite packed.
Despite the potentially hazardous nature of the event, the entertainment had to have been worth it, right? Wrong. Host Cedric the Entertainer fumbled through a series of unfunny sketches, one of which was entirely devoted to the fly on Mike Pence’s head in the vice presidential debate. Other parts of the ceremony felt out of place as well, like when “Hamilton,” the 2020 filmed version of the 2015 musical, won for the Outstanding Variety Special, Pre-Recorded category over Bo Burnham’s stroke of genius, “Inside” (2021) (among other well-deserving nominees). The ceremony itself was terrible, and most in-person attendees were clearly hating it as well. Conan O’Brien gave Television Academy Chief Executive Frank Scherma an obnoxiously loud
standing ovation. “How do we get out of here?” Amy Poehler asked at one point during the show. Despite the record-breaking diversity in the field of nominees, none of the acting trophies went to people of color, a few of whom were frontrunners in their respective categories. It was indeed a frustrating night for many. As for who did win, “Ted Lasso” (2020–) scored big in comedy, earning Jason Sudeikis, Brett Goldstein and Hannah Waddingham acting prizes. HBO’s showbiz hit “Hacks” (2021–) earned awards for directing and writing, and acting legend Jean Smart received a standing ovation for her win as its fearless lead actress. “The Crown” (2016–) predictably swept the drama category, but not without a few surprises. Olivia Colman won for her
performance as Queen Elizabeth II, which was expected to go to either her castmate Emma Corrin, who played Princess Diana, or landmark nominee Mj Rodriguez of “Pose” (2018–2021). Colman herself was clearly surprised by the win, as she said in her acceptance speech, “I would have put money on that not happening.” In another strange but rather sad moment, Kerry Washington’s presentation of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series included a moving tribute to the late Michael K. Williams (also nominated) before she opened the envelope and announced Tobias Menzies’ name. The Limited Series category was probably the most competitive one of the year, and voters seemed split between “Mare of Easttown” (2021), “I May Destroy
You” (2020) and “The Queen’s Gambit” (2020), which won overall. Kate Winslet, Julianne Nicholson and Evan Peters won for “Mare of Easttown,” and Ewan McGregor had a surprising win for “Halston” (2021). In the best moment of the night, Michaela Coel finally won her trophy for writing in “I May Destroy You,” an achievement underscored by her moving acceptance speech. Despite a few highlights, this was a reminder that awards shows are simply not worth watching, at least in this author’s opinion. If it was torturous from the comfort of my couch and sweatpants, it’s hard to imagine being one of the in-person attendees — dressed to the nines, stuffed in a tent with self-obsessed celebrities, bad entertainment and surely some COVID-19 molecules.
Wednesday, September 22, 2021 | Fun & Games | THE TUFTS DAILY
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LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Marci: “I’ll bring my dog here... I’ll leave him with the rabbits.”
Fun & Games
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Monday’s Solutions
CROSSWORD
before anything else, we’re all human rethink your bias at lovehasnolabels.com
8 Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Opinion
tuftsdaily.com
OP-ED
A study on the ‘Arming Study’ NOAH MILLS Although debates on policing and community safety did not start with the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, which were the result of George Floyd’s murder and a history of police killings of Black men, they sparked a renewed and sharp focus on these two topics. Here at Tufts, this interest resulted in, among other things, the campus safety and policing working group and a focus on Tufts as an anti-racist institution. Over the course of the 2020– 21 academic year, the working group and university have given the appearance of completely rethinking the fundamentals of community safety and racist institutions on campus. These working groups heard expert testimonies, read reports and hosted several focus groups and town halls. Passionate student activists, professors and community members contributed ideas and thoughts whenever they were given the opportunity. However, despite the broad discussions, at the end of town halls I attended things never quite felt right. For me, this feeling came from the sense that it would be inappropriate to have the conversations I wanted to: conversations about abolishing the police on campus. Instead the discussion was steered toward safer topics like “What does campus safety mean to you?” which directed the conversations away from criticisms of police as an institution. Despite these suggested questions, many individuals still took their moments to speak to call for a radical change away from the current policing structure.
All of this input and discussion eventually led to the Campus Safety and Policing Final Report, which is composed of nine pages of material produced by the working group and 24 pages produced by external groups (students, faculty, alumni, Tufts Community Union, etc.). The first recommendation, after a year of research and long conversations, is to simply rewrite the mission statement of the Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Tufts University Police Department. Unfortunately, the recommendations do not get much more concrete. I strongly urge all readers to read the document; it really only takes about 10 minutes to read all the recommendations. All of this ‘work’ now leads us to the 2021–22 academic year, with the recommendation of forming a new year-long working group on arming status. From my perspective, this indicates that any concepts of abolition or a radical restructuring of public safety at Tufts are simply out of the picture. By shifting the focus of conversation to arming and disarming, conversation about these more radical topics can be dismissed as unrelated to the topic at hand. The working group simply covered their ears when listening to the 25 pages of survey feedback and 24 additional pages of petitions and letters calling for meaningful change. This may lead students to wonder if asking the statue of Jumbo (the site of a racist interaction by police last year) would be more effective in creating change than attending town halls and responding to surveys. To the wide coalition of students, faculty, alumni and others
who were advocating for serious commitments from the university, this new working group and study should absolutely be seen as an insult. To pretend to listen is worse than to not listen at all. To spend hours calling for and listening to input only to decide that more police engagement is the best solution to the current problems is ridiculous. Leading activists and the broader Tufts community on with promises of change and action only to end up shifting the conversation away from defunding and abolition and towards disarming is simply cruel. The university cannot expect students to keep working within the system they have designed when those systems obstruct, delay and weaken activists’ efforts. All of this just to have another year of surveys emailed around. The recent arming survey is thus doubly insulting because it not only highlights the intentional ignorance of the administration, but it is also extremely poorly designed. Firstly, the framing of the survey is clearly deliberately manufactured. Since the Tufts police are currently armed, wouldn’t a survey inquiring about changing that policy be titled a ‘disarming survey’? If the suggestion of disarming is too leading, then the concept of arming also leads those interested in arming to participate in the survey. The title is the least of the survey’s problems however. The bulk of the survey comes in question five, in which participants are asked to pick which group they would feel can best address a variety of crises. The potential responses are “Armed Tufts University Police Officers,” “Unarmed Tufts University Police
Officers,” “Campus Security Officers,” “Local, County, or State Law Enforcement” and “Mental health professionals.” The crises range from noise complaints to physical assault. Acting as if these five groups (three of which are sworn police officers) are the only options for response to these situations simply ignores how things currently work at Tufts. Things like noise complaints and daily building checks (in residential dorms) are done by Residential Assistants and not any of these other groups. Additionally, over the last year, many RAs have shown a strong interest in helping the university change the responses to more of these crises, although it seems this support was ignored when this survey was drafted. It is also worth noting that “campus security officers” are never defined, and since they only currently exist on the Boston Health Sciences and SMFA campuses, it is not clear what this group would do. To what extent would they have authority? Who would this group be composed of? What requirements would there be to join? Without answers to these questions, how can students accurately provide their ideas for how things should be done? What if a student thinks multiple groups should respond to a crisis? For example, it is not unreasonable to think a panic alarm may be best responded to by mental health professionals, peer support groups and campus security officers. However only one of these groups can be selected in the survey, and one is not even an option. Student and community activists must understand the forces on this campus, which are not
being discussed, which have changed the focus from campus safety to arming. If it is not the will of a significant amount of the engaged community, who is influencing these decisions? President Monaco and the Board of Trustees had the power to establish these working groups; they did not have to attend town halls to have their voices heard. Tufts is an institution with nearly a $2 billion endowment. It is an institution which owns a significant amount of property in Medford and Somerville and has a material interest in continuing to increase the value regardless of the cost to the external community. It is run top-down by the Board of Trustees who all have their own private/corporate/personal interests in operating the school in a certain way and producing graduates who think and act a certain way. The words Tufts writes in its mission statements and emails may be sincerely held by the people writing those words, but if they do not have the power to implement those ideas, then they are simply performing. It is time that the performances end and real action begins. If change is to be made, a critical mass of students, faculty, staff and community members must be organized into a collective action group which uses its own bargaining power (tuition, network opportunities, pressure from local governments, teacher’s strike) to bring the controlling interests of Tufts to the table. Until then, we can keep filling out surveys, but don’t expect any change. Noah Mills is a senior studying chemistry and civic studies. Noah can be reached at noah. mills@tufts.edu.
Sports
Wednesday, September 22, 2021 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY
9
Glickman and Sharda claim first at Middlebury TENNIS
continued from page 10 weekend. Of those nine, four advanced to the round of 16, with junior Tilly Rigby and firstyear Elle Christensen bowing
out in the semifinals and finals respectively. On the doubles side, Christensen and junior Casey Cummings had three convincing performances, winning their
COURTESY DYLAN GLICKMAN
Dylan Glickman and Rishabh Sharda are the Middlebury College Invitational’s B Doubles Flight Winners.
first two matches by an aggregate score of 16–4 and then advancing to the finals with an 8–6 victory over a partnership of Wesleyan juniors. While Christensen and Cummings ended up finishing as runners-up, there were many silver linings in this first outing. With Tufts coming off of a year where they exceeded expectations and advanced to the NCAA Final Four, the squad came out with confidence and heads into competition certain that they can play with anyone. “The number one thing is confidence,” Suk said. “Being able to go to these tournaments and knowing that we can compete and beat these schools is important for everyone on our team.” On the men’s side, 10 singles players and five duos
engaged foes from Middlebury, Skidmore, RPI, Bates and Colby in a six team bout across four singles brackets and two doubles flights. On the singles side, senior co-captain Isaac Gorelik finished as the runner-up in the first group. In the fourth flight, first-year Carlo Hayden had a memorable debut, as he worked his way to the finals but was forced to retire due to an untimely injury. On the doubles end, junior Josh Belandres and first-year Derin Acaroglu won their first two matches in the first flight before bowing out to a Middlebury duo. In the second flight, partners senior Dylan Glickman and junior Rishabh Sharda proved their worth as the No. 1 seed. This army of two flummoxed their four
opponents, with not a single team getting more than four games off of them the entire weekend. After an 8–2 victory over a Middlebury partnership, Glickman and Sharda were crowned champions. The two had clear chemistry inside the lines, despite limited playing experience with each other. “They were closing the net really well, they’re a really high energy team,” Gorelik said. “Both have really strong returns, they just rattled kids, they were really fun to watch.” Both teams will be preparing for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Championships the weekend of Oct. 11, with the women facing off at Bowdoin and the men competing at Colby.
set that set the tempo for the rest of the afternoon. The two teams had an epic back and forth battle in the fourth set with an insane final score of 34–32, Tufts coming out on top in the grueling set. The momentum constantly shifted between the teams, but the Cardinals ultimately came out on top in the fifth set (13–15). Super senior middle hitter and co-captain Jennifer Ryan said that despite the loss, a lot of good still came out of the night. “People fought really hard and I’m proud of them for that,” Ryan said. “It was a tough loss, but the great thing about it, looking at the positive side and trying not to get down since we have so many games going forward, is that there’s a lot that we can learn.” The entire squad was fired up and added either energy, physical success, or both to the
team’s effort in gaining momentum throughout the match. Both sophomore setter Maddie Yu and junior libero Stephanie Lee recorded 24 digs. Senior outside hitter and co-captain Cate Desler recorded 22 kills, while Ryan recorded 12, leading the team in kill percentage with a .391 for the night. “It was fun for me personally as a younger player watching [Desler] and [Ryan] and all our seniors be so fired up,” sophomore defensive specialist Megan Harrison said. “It was super intense and honestly inspiring to see what the culture is all about.” Harrison also made an impact in shifting the energy in favor of the Jumbos. “It is honestly very mind blowing,” she said. “I think back to sophomore year of high school, thinking about Tufts as my dream school. It is very sur-
real to be playing in a Tufts jersey. It’s such a great opportunity I’ve been working towards and I’m just so grateful to have gotten it.” Against the Camels on Friday night, Desler led the team in kills with 12 for the night and was second in digs with 13. Lee had the most digs, recording an impressive 16. Going into this match, junior outside hitter Jennelle Yarwood said the team honed in on some basics. “We focused a lot on our serve and pass game just because that’s really important,” Yarwood said. “I think we ran a lot of good systems and put up a good block.” After their first loss of the season, the Jumbos are looking forward to bouncing back and learning from the good competition. The squad’s next match is Thursday night at Springfield College at 7 p.m.
Volleyball splits first weekend of NESCAC competition by Keila McCabe
Assistant Sports Editor
Volleyball split games this weekend, winning 3–0 over Connecticut College on Friday night and losing 3–2 to Wesleyan on Saturday afternoon. The team now stands at 6–1 on the season after facing its first NESCAC competition of the season in the Connecticut College Camels and the Wesleyan Cardinals. Friday night’s match was quickly won in three by the Jumbos (25–16, 25–18, 25–10). Saturday’s match against the Cardinals was long and extremely competitive, with many back-and-forth scores throughout five sets (20– 25, 25–11, 21–25, 34–32, 13–15). Saturday’s match against the Cardinals was expectedly the best competition the Jumbos have faced this season. Going into
Saturday afternoon, Head Coach Cora Thompson said she was excited to play some better ball. “We want to play good teams and be tested,” Thompson said. “If we want to be the top in New England, and if we want to win our conference, we have to play top competition and improve as we go. Of course, we want to be on the winning end of it, but we really just want to be tested at a faster, higher level.” Walking into Cousens Gym Saturday afternoon, the energy was noticeably off the charts — the bleachers were packed, and the teams were loud and engaged on both sides. The Wesleyan Cardinals came out confident with a strong record of 3–1, very different from the Jumbos’ previous opponent, the Camels, who had not yet played a game this season. The Cardinals and Jumbos played a fast-paced first
SOPHIE DOLAN / THE TUFTS DAILY
The Tufts University women’s volleyball team plays the Williams College team in Cousens Gym on Sept. 11.
10 tuftsdaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Tufts cross country teams both finish second at Bates by Brigitte Wilson
Assistant Sports Editor
The Tufts men’s and women’s cross country teams looked robust at the Bates Super XC Shootout meet on Saturday, continuing their excellent start to the season. Both finished second overall, with a number of strong individual finishes among the men and women’s teams. The men’s event had 10 Jumbo representatives in the top 25, while eight from the women’s event finished in the top 30. Senior and co-captain of the women’s team Danielle Page came in first in the women’s 5K race with a time of 18:08.1. Cognizant of the loss of last season due to COVID-19, Page is particularly excited to have the whole team running together again with less restrictions. The team has also kept the loss of last year’s season in mind as a reminder of how grateful they are to be able to come together as a team each day. “Our [positive team culture] is definitely starting to come back — it’s been really good to be able to spend more time with everyone,” Page said. Unlike the previous weekend’s meet, the Trinity Invitational, which was marked by rough and wet conditions, the course at Pineland Farms was slightly better suited for the runners, though still challenging, according to Page. She also recognizes that adapting to a full cross country schedule will not be an easy transition for some student-athletes. “My co-captain and I have been trying to emphasize giving the team a lot of resources this
EVAN SAYLES / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES
Rhemi Toth sprints to the finish line at the Connecticut College Cross Country Invitational at Harkness Memorial State Park on Oct. 15, 2016. year,” Page said. “We’re really just trying to make it known that the team isn’t only a place that you come for practice… If you’re having a tough day and need to talk, [we’re] there for you.” The beginning of sophomore Walter Wagude’s season has been exceptional, especially considering he wasn’t able to run at the collegiate level last fall. He came in third overall, first for Tufts in the men’s 8K
event with a time of 26:13.5. While he is young, Wagude has emerged as a clear leader on the team. Wagude sees many benefits to the more relaxed COVID19 rules this year, particularly in the ease of running and sense of a social life again. “What has made a big difference for me is going out for a run and not having to wear a mask… Meeting a lot more people [is also great],” Wagude said. “I don’t feel
like I am faster than everyone on the team, but I am someone they can use to pace themselves. I would love to have a Jumbo running next to me and finishing strong with me.” Senior Tara Lowensohn finished third for Tufts and ninth overall, with a time of 19:39.7. Though a veteran of the track & field team, it is actually Lowensohn’s first season on the cross country team, and she is excited to get used to
Tufts tennis teams look to build off promising starts
competing with this team, especially in post-COVID times. “I have no expectations, which is an awesome feeling because the pressure is pretty low,” Lowensohn said. “Any way I can contribute to the success of the team is awesome… We’re all here to have a good time and soak it up.” The cross country teams will have a chance to compete again this weekend at the Purple Valley Classic in Williamstown, Mass.
by Steven Landry Contributing Writer
This past weekend, both Jumbo tennis teams left their home courts adjacent to Harleston Hall for competitions that spanned the entire weekend. While Tufts men’s tennis trekked to Middlebury to face off against five other teams, Tufts women’s tennis commuted to nearby Cambridge for a four team tournament at MIT. The women’s side lined up against host MIT, as well as Amherst and 2021 NCAA runner-up Wesleyan. With this being the first opportunity to compete, 2021 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Coach of the Year Kate Bayard wanted her squad to be competitive but also kept in mind that this was their first tournament back. “She didn’t overwhelm us with too much,” junior Maddie Suk said. “’Play your best, focus on your match, and cheer on your teammates,’ was the message.” Tufts registered nine women for singles and five duos for the see TENNIS, page 9
RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY
Ethan Bershtein approaches a drop shot during Tufts’ 6–3 loss to Middlebury on April 8, 2018.
