The Tufts Daily - September 28, 2021

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Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Tisch College to launch new interfaith civic studies track within civic studies major

Anthony Cruz Pantojas hired as new Tufts Humanist chaplain

by Bo Johnson

Contributing Writer

ANN MARIE BURKE / THE TUFTS DAILY

Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Barnum Hall is pictured on March 28.

by Yiyun Tom Guan News Editor

A grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations (AVDF) will fund the creation of a new track in the civic studies major, an interdisciplinary program housed in the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, that focuses on the intersection of religion and civic engagement.

In addition to a six-course sequence within the major, the AVDF grant will also support a cohort of “student interfaith ambassadors” and a Resident Fellow to help facilitate civic and religious life on campus.

Peter Levine, associate dean of academic affairs and Lincoln Filene professor of citizenship and public affairs, explained that Tufts University applied for one of AVDF’s competitive grants in the Interfaith Leadership and Religious Literacy program and proposed the launch of an interfaith civic studies track.

“The idea of interfaith civic studies came from us, and AVDF decided that it was worthy and that it fit their priorities,” Levine wrote in an email to the Daily.

Levine noted that Tufts already offers courses that examine the connections between faith and civic life, but he believes that more offerings exploring the meaning of civic engagement in a religiously diverse world are necessary at Tufts and beyond.

“A student who is interested in how religion or faith relates to

civic life certainly has many good courses to pick from already,” Levine said. “However, we see a need—not only at Tufts, but everywhere—for more courses specifically about civic action in a religiously pluralist world.”

Brian Hatcher, Packard Chair of Theology in the Department of Religion, seconded Levine’s observation and suggested that Tufts has strengths in the proposed concentration. “​ Speaking from within the [Department] of Religion, I am confident there are a number of existing courses that could potentially contribute to the planned program,” Hatcher wrote in an email to the Daily. “There are intersections around secularism, race, politics, nationalism, communalism, inter-religious communication/exchange, gender, law, etc.”

Both Levine and Hatcher noted that new courses will be developed as a result of the grant and expressed enthusiasm about how they will further bolster the program of study.

The current Civic Studies program supports a civic studies major as well as two minors — entrepreneurship for social impact and peace and justice studies. Within the civic studies major, students can also choose to opt into a peace and justice studies track, which shares a similar curriculum with the PJS minor.

Levine provided some details on what the interfaith civic studies track would look like.

“I would imagine that some courses will focus on how to be effective and responsible in a religiously diverse world, while others may look at the content of religious traditions and how they have interacted, or at the relationship between faith and politics,” Levine said.

The Rev. Elyse Nelson Winger, university chaplain, explained that the student interfaith ambassadors will be a religiously diverse group of upperclassmen who are interested in the role that religion plays in civil society.

“The Ambassadors are a religiously, spiritually and philosophically diverse group of juniors and seniors who are active in many cultural, spiritual, advocacy, and arts organizations on campus; are majoring in a wide range of disciplines; and who are really interested in living questions together such as: ‘What are the roles of religious communities in civil society?

What is the place of faith in public deliberation and work for social justice? How do religious and non-religious communities and individuals work together for the common good?'” Nelson Winger wrote in an email to the Daily.

She noted that the cohort is together reading “See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love” (2020) by Valarie Kaur. Kaur is an activist and filmmaker who will deliver the Russell Lecture on Spiritual Life, which is partially funded by the grant, in spring 2022. see CIVIC STUDIES, page 2

Anthony Cruz Pantojas was recently hired as Tufts University’s new Humanist chaplain, one of the many faiths represented as part of the Tufts University Chaplaincy. A graduate of the Andover Newton Seminary at the Yale Divinity School, their hiring followed an exhaustive nationwide search process taking into account the needs of Humanist students and other members of the Tufts Humanist community.

According to The Rev. Elyse Nelson Winger, university chaplain, the hiring process consisted of several stages, including advising by a steering committee made up of two members of the Chaplaincy and two members of the Humanist community at Tufts.

“The chaplains all get selected through a similar search process,” Audrey McGlothlen, one of the students on the search committee, said in an email to the

Daily. “The University Chaplain selects candidates from the initial resume submission process and meets with them and a set is invited for a first round of interviews.”

McGlothlen said the first interview round is with only the steering committee, after which the top two candidates are invited to campus to meet with groups of students and faculty.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these visits were conducted virtually this year. Following these meetings, the committee meets again to discuss the outcome of these visits.

“We really try to weigh what we see as strengths and determine areas of growth that we are confident they could develop in their time here to try to find the best person to fit with the culture and the goals here,” McGlothlen, a senior, said.

When asked about the role of a Humanist chaplain, see CHAPLAIN, page 2

TCU Senate elects additional trustee representative

by Alexander Janoff Executive News Editor

The Tufts Community Union Senate discussed its upcoming retreat and interviewed an additional trustee representative applicant during its meeting on Sunday.

After a brief roll call, TCU President Amma Agyei introduced the body’s recently elected trustee representatives, who hold no voting power in the Senate but represent the student body’s interest in trustee meetings.

The trustee representatives include Max Miller, a senior, Izzy Lobin, a junior, and Emily Afriyie, a sophomore.

Agyei, a senior, then talked about the upcoming Senate retreat, which will run from Saturday, Oct. 2 to Sunday, Oct. 3.

Agyei requested that every member of the Senate get tested for COVID-19 on Thursday before the retreat, which, according to Agyei,would allow ample time for individual retesting should a testing pool come

OPINION / page 6

ARTS / page 4

SPORTS / back

Joeys for Jumbos

Feeling the blues: Mourning jazz legend George Wein

11–0, 6–0, 0-3: Two wins and a loss for women’s soccer

back positive. The body agreed to the request.

Agyei also announced that the Senate’s Women’s Community Senator seat had been vacated after former Women’s Community Senator Isha Bhatnagar stepped down. TCU Elections Commission is working with the Women’s Center to choose a replacement.

According to Agyei, ECOM will hold elections this week to fill vacancies across student government. Thirteen candidates are running for the vacant Class of 2025 seats.

During her portion of the meeting, TCU Treasurer Elizabeth Hom announced that the Allocations Board (ALBO) will be holding its first meeting of the semester on Wednesday at 8 p.m. The Senate’s ALBO is made up of 10 internally elected TCU senators and is responsible for allocating money from the TCU Treasury to each TCUrecognized student organization on campus. see SENATE, page 2 NEWS

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, September 28, 2021

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New student interfaith ambassadors to study role of religion in society CIVIC STUDIES

continued from page 1 Nelson Winger shared that the application for the ambassadorship was posted on Handshake last semester and seven students were selected after a competitive process.

She also explained that the Resident Fellow will lead inter-

disciplinary and interfaith discussions about civic life on campus, and that the search process for this Fellow, who may be a scholar of religion, clergy or recent Ph.D., will begin this fall.

Nelson Winger conveyed her anticipation of the new initiatives funded by the AVDF grant, which will enable fur-

ther collaboration between the Chaplaincy and the intellectual and civic communities on campus.

“Our chaplains will engage in reflection and discussion throughout the development of the new interfaith track, which will include both curricular and co-curricular opportunities

for community engagement, service, and dialogue,” Nelson Winger said. “Chaplains bring diverse experiences and expertise as scholar-practitioners and spiritual leaders to this conversation, and I am excited to see how we will each learn, grow, and contribute throughout this process.”

Cruz Pantojas brings social justice background to Tufts CHAPLAIN

continued from page 1 McGlothlen responded that their role is to “support identity development and human flourishing in many forms.” According to McGlothlen, Tufts is unique in its representation of Humanism in interfaith spaces.

“It is pretty remarkable that Tufts has a Humanist chaplaincy,” McGlothlen said. “So, the role of the Humanist chaplain is to really hold that space, to make heard perspectives and philosophies that do not fit neatly into specific traditions or religions.”

In addition to their work with the larger community, McGlothlen also describes the role of a Humanist chaplain on campus as being “a confidant for any student seeking guidance or pastoral care.”

According to their biography, Cruz Pantojas’ exposure to multiple faiths growing up prepared them for their work in interfaith spaces. “[Cruz Pantojas spent most of their] life traversing between Puerto Rico and the mainland, [which gave them the] opportunity to grow in an environment where Afro based religions and spiritual traditions, Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, other faiths and non-theist traditions seek to coexist and support a democratic and progressive ethos for all,” their biography on the Tufts University Chaplaincy website says.

Cruz Pantojas is an endorsed Humanist celebrant and associate chaplain as recognized by

the Humanist Society, and also draws “engagement with ethics and relationality” from their “queer Afro-Boricua identity,” according to the biography.

Social justice work is a critical part of Humanism, and something Cruz Pantojas has ample experience with from their work before Tufts. Prior to joining the Tufts Chaplaincy, Cruz Pantojas spent this summer spreading awareness of the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines in marginalized communities through the “Faith in the Vaccine” program run by the Interfaith Youth Core organization, a social justice background that they are certain to bring to Tufts.

According to already “uplifted aims of intersectional advocacy and liberatory social justice work in their role here through outreach both across Tufts and the broader community.”

According to their biography, Cruz Pantojas is also a Dignity Project Mentor at the Betty Ann Greenbaum Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership at Hebrew College and at the Boston University School of Theology. They are also the co-chair of the Latinx Humanist Alliance and a Youth Fellow for “We Got Us,” which is “a grassroots collective supporting Black community members and allies.”

Nelson Winger expressed confidence in Anthony’s ability to further develop the Humanist chaplaincy here at Tufts. “[Cruz Pantojas’] educational background and his rich engagement with humanist thought,

SOPHIE DOLAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

Anthony Cruz Pantojas is Tufts’ new Humanist chaplain. Cruz Pantojas has been involved in Humanist and interfaith work in the Boston area. practice and communities, as well as his experiences working with young people in interfaith contexts, were among [Crus Pantojas’] many strong qualities,” Nelson Winger wrote in an email to the Daily. “I am delighted that Anthony has joined our Multifaith Chaplaincy team and am excited to see how the opportunities for humanist-rooted reflection and action deepen on our campus!”

McGlothlen echoed Nelson Winger’s confidence in the selection of Cruz Pantojas as the new Humanist chaplain.

“[Cruz Pantojas] has expressed a lot of interest in building relationships in this new role,” McGlothlen said.

“Relationality is a very vital part of their understanding of humanism and a foundation for all the other goals they have mentioned.”

Cruz Pantojas formally joined Tufts in August. The Humanist community at Tufts has weekly gatherings at 5 p.m. on Fridays at the Interfaith Center, with Cruz Pantojas leading these services.

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ECOM to hold TCU elections on Tuesday and Wednesday

AVA IANNUCCILLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

Thirteen students are running for Class of 2025 Senate seats.

SENATE

continued from page 1 TCU Diversity Officer Jaden Pena then provided updates to the body. He announced that he was in discussion with university officials about the timing and reliability of the shuttle services to the SMFA, Hyatt Place and Davis Square.

Finally, the meeting moved to an open forum, where members discussed vaccine hesitancy on campus, clarified the university’s vaccination requirement and spoke about several other topics.

Education Committee Chair Claire Bolash discussed an ongoing project which would

publish Tufts course evaluations, an initiative that had been proposed by the Senate in the past. According to Bolash, a sophomore, the program would require each professor to opt in individually and would not involve a widespread mandate.

Assistant Treasurer Jalen Little mentioned that some students living in The Mods are not complying with COVID-19 quarantine and isolation procedures.

According to Little, a junior, the university has been relaxed in its enforcement of isolation requirements and students have been leaving The Mods to get food or go out with friends.

Agyei reported that the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs is investigating isolation noncompliance in The Mods, though the office has so far been unable to find concrete evidence of wrongdoing.

Before adjournment, the body interviewed and elected its final trustee representative, Carolina Olea Lezama.

Olea Lezama is a veteran of the Senate, having served for the previous three years in various positions including Diversity Officer and Latinx Community Senator.

She believes her experience representing Tufts students of a wide variety of backgrounds will prove useful in the position of trustee representative.

“I’ve felt like I’ve been able to connect with students of all walks of life at Tufts, and different backgrounds,” Olea Lezama, a senior, said. “I feel like I really know the student body and what they need.”

Olea Lezama was elected with acclamation, and will join Miller, Lobin and Afriyie as the Senate’s trustee representatives.

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Features

TUSC, OCL discuss changes in social life for 2021–22 school year

3 Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Kevin Zhang Tales from the T

Dumpster fire on rails

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AARON GRUEN / THE TUFTS DAILY

TUSC volunteers prepare açaí bowls for students on the roof of Tisch Library.

by Owen Bonk

Assistant Features Editor

On June 1, Tufts University Infection Control Health Director Michael Jordan sent out an email describing much-anticipated changes in health guidelines for the fall 2021 semester. Among them were the addition of a vaccination requirement and the removal of outdoor mask mandates and physical distancing protocols.

The changes were indicative of the potential for a socially safe semester. Naturally, those working for the Office for Campus Life and Tufts University Social Collective became optimistic about a return to near-normal social life at the university.

“In general, all of us on TUSC are glad to see a greater variety of events available this semester,” junior Jordan Meek, an executive coordinator of the organization, wrote in an email to the Daily. “I’m really looking forward to bringing back our coffeehouse series, which is starting this month. I’m also excited for our senior events, like Lawn on D … That being said, the event I’m most looking forward to has got to be Goat Yoga!”

Excitement seems to be the key word to describe the mood at OCL and TUSC. “Students have hit the ground running this year with programming,” John Wescott, associate director for campus life and TUSC’s primary advisor, wrote in an email to the Daily. “Overall, everyone has remained positive, innovative and committed to providing the best possible experiences while maintaining the safety of everyone involved.”

Despite this excitement and optimism, the return to in-person events has come with a learning curve.

Strange as it may be, many TUSC members only have experience coordinating virtual events.

“In a weird sense, it feels like, at least for me, my job is difficult because I was very confined to doing things in a virtual setting,” Surya Adeleye, Class of 2023 traditions coordinator at TUSC, said.

As a junior who joined the organization during her sophomore year, Adeleye is only now experiencing her first semester of planning larger in-person events. This relaxation of restrictions is crucial for the Traditions team, which puts on events like Spring Fling, an outdoor concert, and Tuftonia’s Day, a massive carnival that commemorates both Tufts’ birthday and the end of the spring semester.

“My biggest hope is that [Tuftonia’s Day] will actually be able to happen,” Adeleye said. “I just really want to be able to put it together and also experience it for the first time.”

Three semesters into COVID-19, Tufts’ senior class is the only one to have had a full spring semester without pandemic-era restrictions. Adeleye expressed concern for the future of Tufts traditions and for the existence of TUSC itself. She worries that despite the continuation of grab-and-go and virtual events, students have forgotten how TUSC events have historically enriched social life at Tufts.

“Now I’m like, ‘Okay, how can we still keep people as engaged and still make people want to show up to TUSC events given that they’re allowed to go to their friends’ dorms and do things that they weren’t able to last year?’” she said.

Of course, the organizations’ definitions of safety are currently in flux in light of the recent surge of the Delta variant of COVID-19.

“That’s caused a lot of uncertainty about what we can and can’t do sometimes just days before an event, and thus disappointment as students have to rethink their plans,” Wescott said.

Indeed, the mood of a Sept. 14, email from Jordan and Camille Lizarríbar, dean of student affairs, was much more ominous than the one sent out at the beginning of the summer.

Jordan and Lizarribar wrote that due to the increasing number of positive COVID19 cases, Tufts would increase testing frequency from once to twice per week.

Stopping short of imposing restrictions

reminiscent of last year, it included a list of recommendations.

“We ask you to be cautious and exercise good judgement,” the email said.

Tufts students, therefore, find themselves in a bind: the energy on campus feels somewhere in between the 2020–21 school year and the time before March 2020. With conflicting signals abounding, TUSC aims to be a steady resource for fun events on campus.

“As new COVID guidelines come out, we are always modifying our approach,” Meek said.

He and his team at TUSC hope that there will continue to be events for all students and all circumstances. Even though things remain unpredictable, he added, there are already reasons to be grateful.

“Today, things are still quite in flux, but I’m just glad to be back in person on campus, and in the classroom,” he said.

Wescott also looked at the situation through an optimistic lens.

“It’s been a difficult, albeit rewarding experience to see the creativity of the student leaders and community as we overcome the challenges of programming during the pandemic,” he said. “I continue to be impressed, because while it may seem dull at times, it’s clear that our student organizations and TUSC have done significantly more than most schools have done during the pandemic.”

Perhaps this success is the result of the mutually high regard in which the OCL and TUSC hold each other.

“Without John Wescott, I think TUSC would not exist,” Adeleye said. “We are so appreciative of him … he really helps us stay in line.”

She cited his well-honed organizational skills as a perfect complement to the creativity of TUSC members.

Wescott echoed Adeleye’s sentiment, noting that keeping spirits up and keeping Tufts’ vibrant social life alive is hard work that requires a great deal of collaboration.

“It’s been an honor to be part of the team behind that,” Wescott said.

elcome to Tales from the T part 2: Electric Boogaloo! Each week we’ll be diving into a story about the T and other forms of Boston transportation. Who knows, some of them might even be interesting.

For this week’s column, we’ll be discussing a hilariously awful type of train that once ran on the Green Line, the US Standard Light Rail Vehicle (SLRV). The SLRV’s story starts in the ’60s, when many American streetcar systems were in the market for new trains, as their workhorses — the venerable Presidents’ Conference Committee (PCC) streetcars — were reaching the end of their lifespan. One such system was the MBTA, which ordered custom streetcars from Düwag in 1971 for the Green Line. Düwag was a German manufacturer, however, and wouldn’t be eligible for crucial federal funds under then-new “Buy American” legislation.

The order was scuttled, but the government proposed an alternative.

Why not kill a flock of birds with one stone by designing a single train for multiple streetcar systems? It wasn’t a new concept — the PCCs were designed this way. Like the PCC, these trains would benefit from standardized parts and new technology. And as the Vietnam War ramped down, here was a chance to harness our military contractors’ labor and expertise for something that didn’t involve committing war crimes in Southeast Asia (hopefully). So in 1973, the MBTA and San Francisco’s MUNI placed an order with Boeing for these new U.S. Standard Light Rail Vehicles. If Boeing delivered on its promises, these SLRVs would revolutionize American light rail.

Spoiler alert: they didn’t. Problems with the SLRVs included dirty ACs, broken brakes, got delivered two years late, faulty doors, rusted parts, wheels that straight-up broke apart, we didn’t start the fire… The MBTA’s mechanics literally could not keep up with how quickly the SLRVs would break.

Three months after the SLRVs were introduced, the entire Green Line was shut down because there weren’t enough functioning trains. Things got so bad that the MBTA resorted to cannibalizing some SLRVs for spare parts to keep the remaining trains running. To hide the fact that its prized new trains were now less reliable than the Joey, the MBTA hid these skeletal trains in subway tunnels, only towing them outside at night.

By 1979, Boeing had settled with the MBTA to cancel delivery of the rest of the order and provide funds to repair the remaining fleet. The SLRVs would croak on until 2007 — not because they worked well, mind you, but because their replacements were somehow even more unreliable.

In hindsight, not all of this was surprising. Boeing had never built ground transit vehicles (besides the 737 MAX), and didn’t know how to make the SLRVs easy to fix for the resource-strapped MBTA. The government’s desire to reinvent the streetcar meant that much of the SLRV’s technology was unproven and over-engineered. And there were inherent design compromises due to the MBTA’s and MUNI’s drastically different demands that limited the SLRV’s usefulness to both. The SLRV was ambitious, but perhaps doomed from the start.

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

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Tuesday, September 28, 2021

George Wein, founder of Newport Jazz Festival, dies at 95

by Miles Singer Staff Writer

George Wein, who launched the Newport Jazz Festival, died on Monday, Sept. 13 at the age of 95. News of his death resonated throughout the jazz world, with many musicians and institutions offering words commemorating his life and legacy. Jazz at Lincoln Center praised Wein’s vision for the jazz festival in a statement, writing that he “presented the most comprehensive cross-sections of great artists from all generations in an imaginative and unprecedented variety.” Pianist Jon Batiste spoke lovingly about Wein’s personal influence on him, and said that all music festivals owe something to Wein.

Wein grew up in a Jewish family in Newton, Mass. He had an early enthusiasm for jazz, leading his own bands and frequenting venues. He made his first big step into the jazz world when he founded the Storyville jazz club and record label. Jazz greats like saxophonists Sidney Bechet and Lee Konitz recorded on the Storyville label, and the club featured performances from luminaries like vocalist Sarah Vaughan and saxophonist Charlie Parker. Already apparent in these early ventures was Wein’s interest in all facets and styles of jazz, the characteristic that made his festival so successful.

Building off the success of Storyville, Wein presented the first Newport Jazz Festival in 1954. Elaine Lorillard, a wealthy Newport resident, approached Wein with the idea of hosting a jazz festival in Newport, and she and her husband offered $20,000twenty-thousand dollars in support. Although Wein did not invent the concept of the jazz festival, his attempt displayed much more ambition than previous festivals.

The inaugural festival took place outdoors on the grounds of the Newport Casino, and featured a lineup of stars that included Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson and Billie Holiday.

Thousands of attendees flocked to the festival, and the tremendous success warranted a return the following year. The festival also provided a template for running an outdoor music festival on a large scale.

Only a matter of years after its inception, the Newport Jazz Festival

Raga Chilakamarri On Demand

An ode to ‘Halt and Catch Fire’ and the glory of new beginning

W

ishing my life was a TV show has the same energy as romanticizing trips to Costco and pretending The Sink baristas are the archetypal “popular kids.” Although I don’t need it, I just want an excuse to battle through song (“Glee,” (2009–15)) and speak in an Irish accent (“Derry Girls,” (2018–)) and drink coffee for lunch (“Gilmore Girls,” (2000–07)).

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Wein died on Sept. 13 at 95 years old. had become an influential part of the jazz world. Miles Davis’ playing at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival led to his signing to Columbia Records. At the 1956 Festival, an inspiring performance from Duke Ellington’s orchestra (captured on the album “Ellington at Newport” (1956)) revitalized Ellington’s career. Wein described the concert as “the greatest performance of Ellington’s career,” and many critics rank it among the best jazz performances ever recorded. In 1958, photographer Bert Stern captured the festival on film, turning the footage into the documentary “Jazz on a Summer’s Day” (1959), which became one of the most celebrated jazz films of all time.

As Wein’s first festival earned a reputation as the largest and most significant event on the jazz calendar, his influence as a promoter grew. He produced festivals in New Orleans,

and overseas in places like Paris, Seoul and Warsaw. The model set by Wein’s Newport Jazz Festival also inspired jazz festivals like the Monterey Jazz Festival, founded in 1958.

Though the Newport Jazz Festival helped grow the audience of jazz and influenced the careers of many jazz legends, the festival’s nearly 70-year-long run has not been without controversy.

Even as early as 1958, critics lambasted Wein for including non-jazz acts like Chuck Berry and Ray Charles. This criticism did not have much sway on Wein’s programming, and recent festivals have featured acts like rapper Common and gospel singer Mavis Staples.

In 1960, Charles Mingus and Max Roach staged a rival festival in Newport.

That same year, hordes of drunk people who could not get tickets to Wein’s festival rioted throughout Newport. As a result of the riots, Wein was barred

from hosting the festival in 1961, though he returned the following year. More interruptions occurred in 1971, when gate-crashers disrupted the festival.

Wein consequently moved the festival to New York, returning to Newport in 1981.

George Wein’s immense contributions to the jazz world have earned him numerous accolades. In 2005, he received the distinction of being named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, and former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton recognized his contribution to the arts. Even after formally giving up his role as the festival’s producer, he remained an important figure at the festival. At the most recent festival in 2021, Wein, though not there in person, introduced Mavis Staples and Andra Day remotely. Wein’s legacy will continue to live on through the Newport Jazz Festival and music festivals around the world.

Instead, this column is my chance to ramble, uninterrupted, about TV shows I love and to imagine myself as the Athena to Ryan Murphy’s Zeus (i.e. a screenwriter’s brainchild).

My mother and father are professional computer scientists. I, on the other hand, barely survived COMP11.

Even so, my favorite TV show is AMC’s “Halt and Catch Fire” (2014–17), a four-season drama first set in the late 1980s, from the dawn of the personal computer through the development of the World Wide Web. When I say favorite — and this is embarrassing — I mean my phone lock screen is a graphic I drew of the opening credits.

The show follows a quartet of complex characters and their cycles of failures and reboots at pioneering the future of technology. The vibe is gritty, intense and compelling.

Halt starts with Joe MacMillan, played by tall, dark and handsome Lee Pace, the antihero visionary who arrives in Dallas

with a scheme to manipulate a small software company into building a rip-off of IBM’s personal computer. Joe ropes in rumpled engineer Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy) and punk programming prodigy Cameron Howe (Mackenzie Davis), setting off our journey. The show thwarts expectations of copycatting “Mad Men” (2007–15) and hits its stride in the second season, where it shifts focus from the male leads to the partnership between Cameron and hardware expert Donna (Kerry Bishé), Gordon’s wife, in developing an online gaming company; their relationship became the emotional backbone of the show.

As much as the tech stuff made me want to boot up Python and type out “print(‘hello world’)” it mostly served as an engine to explore the nuances of human drive and emotion. Heartbreak came not just in fractured romantic relationships but when the characters failed each other as friends. And, in that way, the intimate business partnerships and

passion for innovation were each integral love stories.

Unlike plenty of television which waxes on and on (I’m looking at you season 18 of “Grey’s Anatomy,” (2005–)), Halt has one of the best finales I’ve seen, concluding in the overarching theme that it’s not about the product but the people you build it with. Or, as Joe tells Gordon in the pilot, “Computers aren’t the thing.

They’re the thing that gets us to the thing.”

I’ve been a little crazy with gushing about this show to everyone around me, because, not only is it ugh! so good but it has gone largely unappreciated. In the thicket that is streaming services, stumbling upon a hidden gem like Halt invokes the same feeling, I’d imagine, as meeting your significant other on Tinder: you “found ‘love’ in a hopeless place.”

Raga Chilakamarri is a junior studying economics and English. Raga can be reached at raga.chilakamarri@tufts.edu.

Tuesday, September 28, 2021 | FUN & GAMES | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Difficulty Level: Contracting COVID-19 twice.

By Taggart Eymer

Friday’s Solutions

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CROSSWORD

Before anything else, we are all human.

It’s time to embrace diversity.

Let’s put aside labels in the name of love.

Rethink your bias at lovehasnolabels.com

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6 Tuesday, September 28, 2021

by Elizabeth Buehl The Journey

An introduction

I

n a world with hurricanes of Herculean force, pandemics that have jolted the globe and politics arguably more divisive than ever before, we as global citizens are forced to tackle life in our own unique way.

Along each of our individual journeys we are accompanied by vastly different sets of environmental factors creating a society that lights up each of our senses, with no two people absorbing sights, sounds and smells in exactly the same way. When facing the respective adversities that life sends us, it is quite simple to get lost in the big picture, stuck in the clouds. Yet, what if we were to take just a moment to get lost in the minutia, immersed in the details that create the diversity that colors our landscape’s vibrant hues?

This semester, I hope to take you on a journey to do just that. I believe that there is one vital piece many of us are missing on our respective quests towards navigating adversity with a sense of peace: imperfection. I plan to open this iteration as a space to foster this very sentiment.

When I first began to envision what this column would look like, I sat in Aisle 23, a window seat on JetBlue.

With my laptop on the tray table, an N95 mask suffocating my face and the light from the afternoon sun glimmering through the clouds, I fell into the reflective haze that I often find myself in while on the airplane.

I thought back on my past two iterations, “Sobremesa” and “Building Blocks,” and wondered what stance I hoped to take during this coming fall. While I’ve always felt that social justice is my niche, I knew I would need to step outside my comfort zone to truly embrace the idea of service through journalism.

Today, I sit here writing from isolation. Only 11 days after moving into my room in Harleston Hall, I tested positive for COVID-19, something I never would have predicted as I sat vaccinated with my facial covering on the airplane.

While the initial devastation of having to spend 10 days away from campus in conjunction with the adverse symptoms that have not yet worn off, the solitude of isolation has reminded me of who I am at my core: defenseless yet strong, searching yet affirmed.

I hope that by espousing vulnerability and sharing with the audience the tumultuous yet simultaneously beautiful experiences that I have faced and continue to face I will develop a sense of cathartic relatability. Publications alongside social media are ridden with two extremes: perfection and horror. All too often we find ourselves either watching things as exciting as Olympians winning gold medals or instances as horrifying as rioters violating our nation’s Capitol. As I write this initial iteration under less-than-desirable conditions, I hope to help people find the gray in a black-and-white world and use my candid words as inspiration to take a step back and marvel at the beauty in messy details.

Elizabeth Buehl is a sophomore who has not yet declared their major. Elizabeth can be reached at elizabeth.buehl@tufts.edu.

Opinion

tuftsdaily.com

VIEWPOINT

To the Hyatt and back: The issue of the Hyatt shuttle frequency

AVRIL LYNCH

by Idil Kolabasf

Contributing Writer

Fall 2021. A new semester marked by the arrival of a new class year prepared to explore new courses and experience all that Tufts has to offer. This year, however, around 100 first-year students were assigned to live in the Hyatt Place in Medford, nearly two miles away from campus. Even after West Hall’s transformation into a first-year dorm, the university was unable to compensate for over-admitting the incoming Class of 2025.

Incoming students housed in the Hyatt expected a 15-minute shuttle to and from campus, which would allow them to still experience the tight-knit liberal arts college experience they anticipated from Tufts. This is not the case.

Instead, the 100 students placed in the Hyatt Place remain isolated from the rest of their class and some in-person,

on-campus activities, especially those in the evening, due to irregularities in the shuttle schedules.

David Chen, a first-year student resident in the Hyatt Place, shared his experience with the inconsistency of the shuttle.

“It is often on schedule, but sometimes it is off because of traffic … Sometimes you still have to wait, especially when it’s at night, because the schedule often gets messed up,” Chen said.

According to Chen, the travel time can take anywhere between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on whether the shuttle stops in Davis Square before going to the Hyatt.

“First day of orientation, I actually waited 60 minutes in the rain for the first shuttle, because there was only one shuttle in the first week of orientation,” Chen said.

This inconsistency demonstrates the miscommunication between the Office

of Residential Life and Learning and the students living in the hotel, which was especially prevalent during the first week of the semester.

The ORLL also promised to initiate social activities in the Hyatt to help the students who live there get to know each other; however, this promise was not fulfilled. Events similar to those offered on campus should be provided at the Hyatt, such as movie nights and bingo games, in order to foster a greater sense of community within the hotel.

There is also the question of safety for students walking to and from the Hyatt. Do students feel unsafe walking home at night in an area they are not familiar with? Is this environment suitable for students who may have expected to live within the vicinity of their peers?

Social initiatives to accommodate first-years living in hotels are particularly important in a university like Tufts, as the university has a tight-knit campus that is not very spread out around the city. This proximity is a vital element of the Tufts college experience.

A change in shuttle schedules occurred on Sept. 23, when the ORLL initiated a shuttle that goes directly from the campus to Hyatt after Santiago Castillo Juarez published an op-ed in the Daily about his experience living in the Hyatt and how it did not fulfill his expectations.

Even though there is a new shuttle installed that goes directly from campus to the Hyatt, there is still a need for a more frequent and reliable shuttle system. Chen shared his concerns about the future as the weather gets colder.

“It is going to snow in the winter and if there are more frequent shuttles, it means that I would be waiting for a shorter amount of time, and it would be a better experience when it is cold and snowy,” Chen said. Students at the Hyatt should not have to wait long periods of time in freezing temperatures for a shuttle to arrive.

We appreciate the changes the ORLL has made to improve the system of transportation between Tufts and the Hyatt. However, we demand more for the students who are accommodated there. Tufts promises an inclusive and collaborative environment for its students and the placement of 100 students in an isolated location violates this promise. Students should be allowed to freely engage in campus activities and have a more reliable transportation system, thus making them feel safe as they adjust to their first year at Tufts. It is the least the university can do.

Sports

Tuesday, September 28, 2021 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Reed adds 5 goals in 2 games

STEPHANY SESTINI / THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts defenders prepare to get possession of the ball from a throw-in.

WOMEN'S SOCCER

continued from page 8 Colby 6–0, but sometimes you need those games of loss to really motivate you for the rest of the season,” Reed said.

The MIT match was the toughest of the season so far for Tufts.

Coming into the bout undefeated and off a ridiculous 11–0 victory over New England College, Tufts was caught off guard by the Engineers. The Jumbos’ effort to score fell short although they had 17 shots to the Engineers’ 12.

“The biggest takeaway is that we have to be on point, focused, everything squared away in 90 minutes of the game,” senior forward Melina McDevitt said.

“Because good teams will exploit you if you take a play off and that’s exactly what they did.”

On Saturday, Sept. 18, prior to the MIT and Colby matches, Tufts faced New England College, who were clearly overmatched as the Jumbos blanked the Pilgrims 11–0. It’s unclear what the Pilgrims did with all

that time on the Mayflower, but clearly it wasn’t spent practicing soccer. Reed started off the frenzy by scoring in the second minute of the game. McDevitt followed shortly thereafter, putting away her first of two goals for the day in the 16th minute.

The interval between the 20th and 30th minute was also tough for the Pilgrims as Sykes, junior midfielder Maddie Pero and sophomore midfielder Thalia Greenberg all found the back of the net. The Jumbos showed no

signs of slowing down as firstyear defender Jordan Cushner struck the ball into the top left corner in the 39th minute.

The Jumbos got back to work in the second half, as senior defender Kylie Metcalf scored off an Ameer assist. In the next five minutes, the Jumbos tallied their goals up to nine with help from McDevitt and senior midfielder Lily Keiderling. Unlike softball, where a team that is losing by 10 runs after five innings is subject to the mercy

rule, soccer just keeps going, so New England College had to persevere as sophomore midfielder Erin Duncan and Reed both scored to make the final score 11–0.

The NESCAC is no joke — at least when it comes to Div. III schools close to the Northeast megalopolis. The Jumbos now hold a 4–1 record and have some tough NESCAC play ahead of them with Wesleyan on Tuesday and Bates and Hamilton this weekend.

Sports

8 Tuesday, September 28, 2021

tuftsdaily.com

Men’s soccer draws at Colby, remains unbeaten Is it the Chargers’ on season

Henry Gorelik The End Around

S

time?

ports fans, by definition, are hopeless and idealistic reactionaries.

We sit glued to our seats, trying to extrapolate the bigger picture of the individual decisions, games and players that we watch.

Unfortunately, I’m no different. As I sat on my couch watching the Chargers take down the Chiefs, I romanticized this Chargers victory as their official coming-out party and a profound disruption to the current balance of power that exists in the NFL. I could not help but to picture the Chargers as the Athenians challenging the dominant Spartan forces in an effort to take down the Chiefs and gain control of the AFC West.

You can see how easy it is to get carried away. In reality, the results of this Week 3 AFC West matchup in 2021 probably will not have the same global ramifications as the Peloponnesian War. Still, at the very least, this game officially opened the rivalry between quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert that will captivate us for years to come.

The game felt all but over when Mahomes got the ball with roughly two minutes left. You could close your eyes and imagine the quarterback leading a methodical touchdown drive, then summoning the ghost of Philip Rivers to throw a poorly timed interception in the fourth quarter. This is a sequence that Chargers fans have become all too familiar with. But then, safety Alohi Gilman intercepted Mahomes. Then it all came back as guard Matt Feiler was flagged for a false start on a critical 4th and 4. This simultaneously forced the Chargers out of field goal range and a tenuous 4th and 9. First-year head coach Brandon Staley stuck with his guns, as Jalen Guyton drew a pass interference and extended the drive, which ended in the go-ahead touchdown from Mike Williams.

I was not necessarily struck by the result but more so Staley’s process. Facing 4th and 9 at Arrowhead Stadium with a chance to play it safe and secure great field position, Staley showed unwavering confidence in his team and an eager willingness to directly challenge Mahomes and the Chiefs. Yes, Staley is known to lean on analytics and that data will tell you that you need to be uber-aggressive and go for a lot of 4th downs to beat the Chiefs. One way to look at this situation is that Staley trusted the numbers and made the right decision.

But let’s take a more nuanced perspective and put analytics to the side for a moment. We have seen a lot of coaches make big in-game decisions based on the desire to not lose, rather than a desire to win. It is abundantly clear that Staley and the Chargers had no interest in this game going to overtime. They wanted to win it in the fourth quarter and believed that they could. The assertion and fortitude that it took to go for it on a 4th and 9 was not only incredibly entertaining, but necessary for an ascending team like the Chargers. It’s this type of confident posture that teams will have to embrace if they want to destabilize the balance of power and propel themselves into the upper echelon of the NFL. Sparta held its ground and defeated the rising Athenians in the Peloponnesian War. After the result on Sunday, we are left to wonder, how much longer will the Chiefs be able to stave off the Chargers?

Henry Gorelik is a junior studying economics and international relations. Henry can be reached at henry.gorelik@tufts.edu.

COURTESY DANNY NOYES

The Tufts men’s soccer team played to a 1–1 draw against Colby on Saturday, Sept. 25.

by Matt Chen

Assistant Sports Editor

Tufts men’s soccer faced its first double overtime of the season, ending the 110 minutes of play in a 1–1 draw at Colby on Saturday, moving the Jumbos’ record to 5–0–1 on the season. A strong defensive game from both teams, Tufts fought back from a Colby goal late in the first half to tie it with four minutes left in regulation. However, neither team was able to find the back of the net throughout both periods of overtime.

The teams traded shots for most of the first half until Colby’s Justin Lauer scored off an assist from teammate Jared Wood in the 39th minute to put the host Mules up 1–0. The Jumbos, who outshot Colby 23–10 on the day, continued to generate scoring chances, finding their equalizer in the 87th minute when super senior defender and co-captain Biagio Paoletta found the back of the net on an assist from graduate student midfielder Travis Van Brewer.

Throughout the overtime periods, the Jumbos’ defense became a brick wall,

allowing zero total shots from Colby in both overtime periods, while generating six shots of their own.

“I don’t think they even got out of their half,” super senior defender and co-captain Calvin Aroh said. “We knew what they were trying to do. Everyone bought in more in the second half defensively.”

Sophomore defenders Gibson Campbell and Max Clivio have stepped up big in their first collegiate seasons, proving to be crucial members of the Jumbos’ defense that has only allowed three goals all season. “[Campbell] and [Clivio] have done a really good job getting up to speed on just how physical the league is and the potential every other team has to score,” senior and fellow defender Ian Daly said.

Anchoring the Jumbos’ defensive line has been first-year goalkeeper Erik Lauta, who has had an outstanding start to his collegiate career. Lauta has started all six of the Jumbos’ games and has logged 13 total saves, including four at Colby.

“[Lauta] has really come in and played with a lot of confidence and done a great job,” said Daly. “We all feel very safe with him behind us, which is really great.”

With the sophomore and first-year classes both playing in their first collegiate season, the large group of seniors and super seniors has provided the Jumbos with strong leadership, helping guide a large portion of the roster through a collegiate season in one of the strongest conferences in the country.

Aside from leadership and mentoring on the field, team bonding outside of games and practice has been instrumental in getting team chemistry to where it is this early on in the season.

“The entire super senior class has done a really great job of planning activities and getting all of us to bond as a team,” Daly said. “I think if we didn’t have that, there’s no way we’d be in the position we are right now.”

The Jumbos will look to get back into the win column on Tuesday when they close out non-conference play against Babson College in Wellesley, Mass.

Women’s soccer rolls past NEC and Colby, falls to MIT

by Isaac Karp Sports Editor

After a breakout 2019 season, where Tufts University women’s Soccer danced to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet Sixteen, the Jumbos began their 2021 season with NESCAC title hopes, and their performances so far have rarely disappointed.

Most recently, Tufts squared off against Colby on Saturday, ultimately defeating the Mules 6–0. The Jumbos’ three captains combined for all three goals of the first half. The first goal of the match came when senior midfielder and co-captain Lily Sykes sent a free kick from half field into the box that found the head of fellow senior midfielder and co-captain Stephanie DiLeo.

Graduate student forward and co-captain Liz Reed found her first goal off a self-made play, where she received the ball on the top right edge of the box, made a sharp turn to her left, and sent a high arching shot that found the left corner of the goal. The entire sequence looked like a scene from “Bend it Like Beckham” (2002) and Reed would only continue to capitalize on opportunities for the rest of the match. The last goal of the half came from DiLeo again as the Jumbos entered half time up 3–0.

Instead of playing it safe, the Jumbos increased their intensity in the second half as Reed scored again in the 51st minute and went on to continue to be involved with each goal scoring opportunity this half. She picked out junior forward Claire

Wilkinson inside the box for an easy tap in, putting Tufts up 5–0. The final goal of the match for Tufts came from a cross directed into the box by junior midfielder Margaux Ameer, with Reed timing it beautifully to complete her hat trick.

“It’s not all about scoring because, even though I had a hat trick, I’m always thinking about the things that I can do better,” Reed said.

The Colby game was the Jumbos bouncing back and taking care of business in the NESCAC after losing to MIT in an uncharacteristic performance.

“We just played MIT and we lost 3–0, which really lit a fire under us to beat see WOMEN'S SOCCER, page 7