Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Student activists: University delays progress through committees, working groups see FEATURES / PAGE 3

MEN’S TENNIS

Jumbos battle back after brutal trio of losses

Multiple museums collaborate on new Boticelli exhibit at SMFA see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 5

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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VOLUME LXXIII, NUMBER 54

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Tuesday, April 25, 2017

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Tufts to offer Hindi-Urdu classes in ExCollege

by Minna Trinh

Assistant News Editor

After student support and lobbying by Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate, Tufts will offer Hindi-Urdu classes next semester as part of the Experimental College. Hindi-Urdu 1 and 3 will be offered, and the 15-person Hindi-Urdu 1 section is currently full, according to the Student Information System (SIS).

Dean of Academic Affairs for the School of Arts and Sciences Joseph Auner said the idea for Hindi-Urdu classes was initially brought to him by members of the South Asian Political Action Committee (SAPAC). The group brought to Auner’s attention a survey showing a high level of student interest in seeing Hindi-Urdu language courses offered at Tufts. In addition, TCU Senate unanimously passed a resolusee HINDI-URDU, page 2

by Simran Lala Staff Writer

Editor’s Note: Khuyen Bui, a columnist at the Daily, is cited in this article. He was not involved in the production of the article.

Representative for the Middle East Peace Process.

At the event, Moratinos was awarded the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award to recognize his commitment to world peace and engagement in international affairs. As he accepted the award, Moratinos emphasized the importance of being a global citizen.

He began his talk by pointing out that the world is still lacking a concrete road to peace in the Middle East region, but expressed hope for the resolution of regional conflicts in the future.

“I’m still convinced that peace is possible in the Middle East,” Moratinos said.

Moratinos identified several missed opportunities that prevented the establishment of a lasting peace in Palestine and in the Middle East, listing diplomatic mistakes that occurred during different negotiations and peace conferences throughout history. Moratinos emphasized that both Israel and Palestine, along with many members of the international community, are to blame for these missed chances.

Moratinos also highlighted the importance of looking to the past to understand the roots of today’s conflicts in the Middle East, and criticized the absence of historians as advisors to influential politicians. According to Moratinos, historians

Voices of the Hill student group will host “The Gap,” its first monologue event, this evening at 8 p.m. in Breed Memorial Hall. At the event, Tufts students will perform a series of monologues to share their stories and diverse experiences.

The group’s website prompts students to submit stories about experiences with “the gap,” which it defines as a kind of empty space in people’s lives or in the larger Tufts community. About 20 students will share their stories, both in named and anonymized formats, during the event according to senior Kofi Asante who was involved in creating the event.

According to Asante, Voices of the Hill was created because a group of seniors felt frustrated by a lack of communication in the Tufts community about important issues.

“We felt [that the Tufts community] is sort of an echo chamber, with people only conversing with people that agree with them and ignoring the others who don’t,” Asante said.

Senior Cyrus Mahini explained that the event was intended to amplify voices that are often unheard on campus and prompt discussions after the event.

“I think given the current political climate and the tendencies of this campus to isolate itself, we thought that this series of monologues could not only foster a discussion or dialogue about various issues through the lens of storytelling, but also add a variety of perspectives from Tufts students that tend not to be visible,” Mahini told the Daily in an email.

Khuyen Bui, another senior involved in the creation of the event, explained that the format is a series of orations with the main purpose of creating space for different voices to be heard. The website notes that submissions can range widely in length.

“My intention is for these monologues to be the first step into initiating more

see MORATINOS, page 2

see MONOLOGUES, page 2

THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVE

The ExCollege, formerly The Alumni House, which will house Hindi-Urdi classes, is pictured on Jan 1, 2000.

Former Foreign Minister of Spain proposes strategies for Middle East peace

SEOHYUN SHIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaubé, former Foreign Minister of Spain, talked about his experience with diplomacy in the Middle East in Alumnae Lounge on April 24.

by Emily Burke

Assistant News Editor

Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaubé, the former foreign minister of Spain, spoke about the complicated nature of the Middle East peace process and criticized past pitfalls and missed opportunities at an event in a mostly-full Alumnae Lounge last night.

The event was sponsored by the Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) program

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Voices of the Hill monologues to begin tonight

in collaboration with the Institute for Global Leadership. Moratinos discussed the significance of the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, which pledged support for the creation of a national Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Moratinos has extensive experience in peace negotiations, having held positions including Director of the Institute of Cooperation with the Arab World, General Director of Foreign Policy for Africa and the Middle East, Spain’s Ambassador to Israel and European Union Special

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, April 25, 2017

T HE T UFTS D AILY Kathleen Schmidt Editor-in-Chief

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Voices on the Hill hopes to prompt discussion of challenging topics MONOLOGUES

continued from page 1 conversation in the future,” Bui said.

Asante explained that public sharing of monologues, rather than through an anonymous format, allows for attendees to match faces to experiences.

“Around 80 to 90 percent of the people are ready to go out there and talk,” Asante said. “But there is also an option for pieces to be read out anonymously.”

Asante said that submissions covered a range of topics, including many intimate ones about race, religion and sexuality. Students also submitted monologues on topics that were merely annoying or celebratory for them, which added levity, he said. He said that the goal was to choose monologues that were authentic and interesting, and that addressed topics that are not always discussed in everyday conversation.

“In the application process, we looked for stories with a unique perspective,” Asante said.

Asante said that those unique perspectives were not difficult to find because of the diverse nature of the Tufts community. He emphasized that, in an effort to preserve the honesty of the speaker, none

of the monologues were edited.

Asante said that other monologue events at Tufts, such as It Happens Here and Mental Health Monologues, intentionally focus on specific sensitive topics, while Voices of the Hill gives writers free reign to discuss any kind of experience. Asante said he hoped the broad range of topics would open attendance to a wide audience of the community.

Voices of the Hill hopes to extend beyond the monologues that will be shared, Bui said. He added that, over the course of the year, the group plans to set up an online platform to stimulate further discussion on the topics discussed at the event.

They also hope to host

BEN KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

Cyrus Mahini, Kofi Asante and Khuyen Bui, the organizers of Voices on the Hill, pose for a photo on the hill of the President’s Lawn on April 24.

ExCollege Hindi-Urdu classes to assess student interest HINDI-URDU

continued from page 1 tion in March 2016 calling for Hindi-Urdu classes, according to a 2016 Daily article.

This is not the first time that the ExCollege has offered classes in Hindi.

Most recently, the ExCollege offered a conversational Hindi class in Spring 2011. Auner explained that, while Tufts attempted to pilot Hindi-Urdu classes in the past, he and his colleagues have now approved a two-year pilot program that will offer the language consistently.

Auner said that the purpose of the pilot is to gauge student interest in taking Hindi-Urdu classes before considering a full program for the language. Auner said that creating the program at Tufts would be a significant investment.

“In a time of financial constraints and many new demands across the School of Arts and Sciences, we have to be careful

and strategic concerning the allocation of limited resources, but as the fourth most commonly spoken language in the world, Hindi-Urdu obviously merits serious consideration,” Auner told the Daily in an email.

Auner added that students can count the Hindi-Urdu classes toward the language requirement. In addition, Auner explained that because language programs at Tufts integrate both language and culture courses, require a variety of faculty and are offered in multiple sections, creating a new program requires a lot of work and investment.

“That said, the language curriculum has evolved over the decades; as with many parts of the curriculum, the Ex-College has played an important role in determining possible future directions,” Auner wrote.

Due to the results of the SAPAC survey, which showed interest from more than 200

students and many faculty members, Auner explained that offering Hindi-Urdu courses at this time is particularly important.

ExCollege Director Howard Woolf said that, as of right now, the ExCollege is in the process of choosing applicants to teach the Hindi-Urdu class.

Rati Srinivasan, TCU Senate’s historian and one of the authors of the resolution supporting the Hindi-Urdu program, told the Daily in an email that she hopes to see many students register for the class.

Nesi Altaras, the chair of TCU Senate’s Education Committee, predicted that the language’s second level will be offered next spring if it is popular next semester.

“If [a Spring 2018 section] also fills up, the Hindi-Urdu program has a strong chance of becoming a real language program and branch out of the ExCollege and into Olin,” Altaras told the Daily in an email.

Former EU Middle East Peace Envoy says two-state solution still viable MORATINOS

continued from page 1 could play a valuable role as diplomatic tools because they can remind politicians of how conflicts began and how best to deal with these problems at their origins.

“If we want a diplomatic solution, let’s use diplomatic instruments,” Moratinos said.

Moratinos explained the numerous and complex factors that have fueled conflict in the Middle East, including economic, religious, political and cultural interests of not only Middle Eastern countries, but also other major world powers such as the United States.

“I think the Middle East is of vital interest to all of us,” Moratinos said.

Moratinos lamented several obstacles that prevented regional actors from reaching an agreement, such as former President Bill Clinton’s failure to push for another successful meeting between Israel and Palestine after the Camp David summit.

He also noted a dramatic shift in priorities that occurred after the Sept. 11 attacks. In particular, he said the interna-

tional community abandoned the objective of solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and turned its attention to matters of terrorism and international security, which were seen as more direct threats.

Moratinos discussed the significant changes that took place in the Middle East after the Arab Spring. He said that, because of these changes, negotiators cannot continue using old strategies to broker a peace agreement, and they must update efforts to keep up with the shifting political climate in the region.

“The Middle East is a very complex and a very difficult area,” he said.

“There is no common security system for the region.”

In analyzing the conflict in Syria, Moratinos emphasized that it is absolutely necessary to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people before attempting to remove President Bashar al-Assad from power. From there, Moratinos stressed that even before the world can worry about removing al-Assad, a clear political plan for the country post-Assad must be devised.

Moratinos called the current devas-

tation in Syria a failure of international diplomacy, partially caused by repeated unsuccessful military action coupled with a lack of international cooperation.

“Instead of fighting with a common enemy, we are fighting among ourselves,” Moratinos said.

In order to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Moratinos said that Israel and Palestine must recognize each other as legitimate states, and the rest of the international community must do the same.

According to Moratinos, this will facilitate more official and productive negotiation.

Moratinos argued that the two-state solution is still the most viable possibility for a lasting peace.

Furthermore, Moratinos criticized the use of “drone diplomacy” dominated by action at a distance and military operations, arguing that it is ineffective in solving problems.

“Diplomacy is now done by distance, but not on the ground. We don’t meet with the people … diplomacy has to be on the ground,” Moratinos said. “We have to continue flying to the Middle East, and identify correctly what the concerns are.”

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Features

Activism at Tufts Part II: When activism becomes mired in task forces

by Liam Knox

NICHOLAS PFOSI / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVE

Protesters march during the #TheThreePercent rally on Nov. 18, 2015. Students organized to protest anti-Black racism on Tufts’ campus and other college campuses across the United States.

see ACTIVISM, page 4

Editor’s notes: This series was reported by The Tufts Daily’s Investigative Team. Reena Karasin and Cathy Perloff contributed reporting.

This is the second segment of a four-part series exploring the past, present and future of activism at Tufts.

Many student activists have become skeptical of the effectiveness of task forces, committees and working groups in general, which are often among the university’s

initial responses to protests or complaints from students. Establishing a committee to deal with campus issues has become so ubiquitous that Tufts has a faculty-led Committee on Committees, whose role is to appoint, recommend and facilitate elections of members of various committees, according to the Office of the Secretary of the Faculty’s webpage.

Some students go so far as to label these solutions a tool of delay meant to placate protesters rather than address controversial issues.

“Often a lot of the advocacy we’re doing and the anger we feel gets funneled into an

In Ginn Library, Wish Tree symbolizes hope, community

by Ilana P. Goldberg Contributing Writer

Fletcher students returned from spring break to find a blossoming tree in the entrance of the Edwin Ginn Library. With tassels of cloth hanging from its limbs, the tree rests in a corner across from the circulation desk bearing the inscribed wishes and dreams of students, faculty and passersby.

The inspiration for what has become known as the “Wish Tree” came from a photo submitted to the Fletcher Perspectives Gallery, which displays photographs from students’ internships or jobs, according to Cynthia Rubino, the director of the library and information services at Fletcher.

The photograph that inspired the Wish Tree was taken by Mariya Ilyas, a first-year in the Master of Arts in Law & Diplomacy (MALD) program at Fletcher. It was one of multiple photos she took in Turkey, where she spent last year teaching English on a Fulbright Scholarship. Ilyas took this particular photo on her first day in the region of Cappadocia while walking toward a valley.

“This scene, just literally on your left, was this kind of stop area, just this beautiful, empty, haunted scene,” Ilyas said. “And in it, it had a wheelbarrow, one tree with pots on it, one tree with pieces of cloths tied to it, broken pottery on this rack, a dried riverbed in the back and a couple of horses roaming. It was incredible.”

VINTUS OKONKWO / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Wish Tree in the Ginn Library lobby is pictured on April 15.

The tree covered in cloth resonated particularly with Ilyas, who realized she had seen it before as a child growing up in a small village in northwestern Pakistan. “[In Pakistan] was this tree that always sat at the riverbanks of a cemetery,” Ilyas said.

“This tree had these colorful pieces of cloth tied to it. I always thought it was someone’s laundry. I didn’t realize what it was.”

It wasn’t until 2011, on a trip back to Pakistan, that she learned the significance of the tree from her father.

tuftsdaily.com

Alec Whipple Red, White and True

administrative task force, which is a body of people that don’t really do s—t, frankly,” said senior Allyson Blackburn, a former member of Tufts Action for Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP). “They sit in a room once or twice a semester and talk about things in abstract.”

Tufts Climate Action (TCA) member Shana Gallagher said that while she doesn’t feel like working groups and other prolonged responses to student action are deliberately ignoring student concerns, there is a discrepancy in the sense of urgency felt by students and administrators.

“I think what really bums a lot of activists out and feeds this us-versus-them mentality is when we feel like admin totally is just waiting for us to leave … for us it’s only four years, but four years is a long, formative time,” Gallagher, a senior, said. “So I think it’s wrong for administrations to try to have more of an institutional view of things as opposed to appreciating the value of each member of our community.”

Recently, dominant campus issues like the movement to abolish Greek life or Tufts Student Action’s (TSA) call for the university to halt tuition hikes have been siphoned into a Student Life Review Committee (SLRC) and a Financial Aid Student Advisory Board (FASAB), respectively.

According to Tufts Community Union (TCU) Class of 2019 senator Charlie Zhen, who sits on both the SLRC and the FASAB, students who sit on many of these committees are unsure of their role and feel powerless to help enact change.

“I was speaking with students who are on

News Editor

3

“He explained to me that the pieces of cloth actually represent these physical representations of prayers or hopes and dreams,” Ilyas said. “People who are grieving or need God’s help tie it as a gesture to be physically closer to Allah. The fact that everyone’s hopes and dreams are on that tree, it makes the force more powerful.” see WISH TREE, page 4

The Two-Party System: Where Does It Go From Here?

“N

either political party is clean when it comes to tactics that divide our people.”

– Roy Barnes In the wake of the 2016 election, when Democrats voted Republican, Republicans voted Democrat and some voted for no one at all, there has never before been such concern for the inevitable demise of the two-party system. According to some, the Republican Party has been on its deathbed for years now, failing to appeal to minorities, women and young people. Yet the Democrats were the ones on the outside staring in when the dust had settled. With both parties in turmoil, what is the future for each party and will there be an opportunity for a third party to become a legitimate player at the presidential election table?

Even though the Republicans are the governing party right now, they are not functioning as a united body. Controlling the House, the Senate and the presidency has not led to any legislative victories. In fact, it has divided an already fragile body even further. The House Freedom Caucus leads the far right Tea Party faction, which advocates for pure ideological conservatism.

However, there is a growing gap between this body and the moderate Republicans, who are more socially liberal and focus on economic conservatism. The divide between these two groups has prevented a replacement bill for Obamacare from getting passed and could lead to a government shutdown in the near future.

Despite its victory, the Republican Party’s mistake is that it has failed definitively determine which of these two groups it will identify with.

Instead it has, with limited success, tried to shoehorn both groups into the picture.

The Democratic Party has had to deal with a major divide of its own, exposed by the 2016 Democratic primaries. The dual candidacies of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton forced the Democrats to deal with the rift between the progressive and neoliberal wings of their party.

The far left continually pushed back against the center left and was a main reason for the lack of party unity that hurt Secretary Clinton in the general election. Even in the wake of Donald Trump’s election, when it ostensibly should be easiest for Democrats to unite, the Bernie/ Hillary divide still plagues the party. Like the Republican party, the Democratic party needs to choose a side to coalesce around instead of pretending like it can cater to both wings and satisfy neither of them.

The turmoil of the two-party system has led to questions of whether a third party can be a contender in elections. In the last election, the Libertarian Party made itself known as the highest profile alternative to the two main parties.

However, a combination of poor funding, low media attention and some ill-timed gaffes prevented Gary Johnson from progressing in the race. Because of Trump’s election, libertarians may now have a following among the socially liberal and economically conservative, but it will be hard to sustain the money flow needed for campaign success. The critical requirement that was missing in the 2016 election is that any third party candidate must have the adequate funding and name recognition necessary to succeed. However, the disarray in the two major parties has cracked the door open on an opportunity for any third party that is willing to take it.

Alec Whipple is a sophomore majoring in political science. Alec can be reached at alec.whipple@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Features | Tuesday, April 25, 2017

tuftsdaily.com

Fletcher student’s photograph inspires Wish Tree in Ginn WISH TREE

continued from page 3 Ilyas later discovered that such trees are common in other cultures as well.

“This is pretty universal in the sense that it’s not unique to one particular culture,” Ilyas said. “For example, Native Americans have a similar kind of fabric-tying to the tree. It’s pretty common in Southeast Asian and East Asian cultures, definitely in Islamic cultures.”

Rubino and Anulfo Baez, a staff assistant at Ginn Library, were inspired by Ilyas’s story to create Ginn’s own Wish Tree. They decided to use beige, green and white cloth to reflect vitality and the coming of spring and hang them from a real tree that came from Rubino’s yard.

“My husband and I are doing some landscaping, and we had this area that we needed to clear out because we had

a tree growing under a tree. We took the tree growing under the walnut tree and brought it [to Fletcher]. So it wasn’t like I just hacked down a tree,” Rubino said, laughing. “It’s more environmentally friendly!”

The tree went up in Ginn the week after spring break and will remain there until after commencement. Baez believes that the exhibition of the tree comes at a perfect time.

“With this political uncertainty, a lot of us tend to focus on the negative, so the tree really gives us an avenue to focus on the positive and see peoples’ lives through it as well,” he said.

Students from the entire Tufts community are encouraged to come write a wish to hang up on the tree.

“It’s an invitation to everyone and anyone who’s come through the library — not

just the Fletcher community — to come make a wish about anything,” Ilyas said.

Rubino sad that there have been a variety of wishes put on the tree since it was placed in Ginn.

“The tree has some quotes, there are of course some political thoughts and wishes and dreams, and you have the fluffy stuff too,” Rubino said. “What I like about the tree is that it speaks about everybody’s wishes and dreams, and they vary. It’s very personal.”

Some of these wishes include: “I wish there will be peace in the whole world and to all children,” “I wish I had a summer internship,” “I wish to find true love,” and “I wish that 20 years from now, I won’t have any regrets — live your life!”

Baez said he hopes the tree will help build community and start dialogue.

“This could definitely be that outlet

that [students] need to write whatever they’re thinking or whatever their wishes are on it,” he said. “We hope that the overall Tufts community can recognize that you could bring a lot of people together just with something so symbolic as a tree.”

According to Ilyas, the number of wishes on the tree has grown significantly since it was first introduced.

“Now there’s probably about 30-40 wishes on there, and that’s pretty nice,” Ilyas said. “I think the fact that it’s blooming with the coming of spring is just so beautiful and uplifting.”

Ilyas, Rubino and Baez hope to see it grow even more in the coming weeks.

“My hope for [the tree] is that people stop by and read what else is blooming on the tree, and hopefully smile and have a good day,” Ilyas said.

Administrators, activists disagree over necessary pace for progress ACTIVISM

continued from page 3 these committees and they’re very confused as to how they got on, they’re confused as to what their role is, they’re confused as to what administration wants from them,” Zhen, a sophomore, said. “From what I’ve experienced, these are just measures to say that they did something.”

But Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon said in an October 2016 interview that students’ heightened sense of urgency can prevent them from looking at issues thoughtfully, and that administrative solutions like working groups and committees foster more thorough, long-term solutions.

Tufts alumnus Andrew Núñez (A’15) told the Daily that many in the activist community see this argument as dismissive of their work and experience, and think that it has only contributed to students’ feelings of antagonism when working with the university.

“That has been a sentiment I have heard while sitting on committees, blatantly said by faculty members even … that we’re too impulsive and short-sighted in our four years here to make lasting policy decisions,” Núñez said. “The choice there is to empower students or not, and it seems to me that by not empowering students, it’s to the detriment of the institution.”

According to Cassie Barnhardt, a professor of educational policy at the University of Iowa, committees and other such feedback-oriented groups are quite common as university responses to student advocacy.

Barnhardt said this is due to universities’ unique institutional structure of “shared governance” that aims to include the voices of all community members.

In addition, Barnhardt acknowledged that committees are sometimes used as “freezers,” easy ways to address student concerns without actually implementing any change.

The obstructive power of “freezers” History suggests there may be some weight to the claim that regardless of intent, working groups and committees do not facilitate policy changes asked for by student activists.

In 2011, Tufts Pan Afrikan Alliance (PAA) organized an occupation of Ballou Hall to protest the university’s lack of resource commitment to race and ethnic studies; shortly thereafter, a newly appointed University President Anthony Monaco established a Presidential Council on Diversity. The council published its list of recommendations in December 2013, but little action was taken before Provost David Harris, who had been appointed the previous year, called for the development of

a 10-year strategic plan that would incorporate actions on inclusivity and diversity.

Harris pointed out that the hiring of a Chief Diversity Officer and other such measures taken shortly after the list was published were part of the university’s response to the council’s recommendations, and that those recommendations also informed aspects of the 10-year plan.

“The work of the council informed university-level strategic planning, as well as strategic planning in each of the schools,” Harris told the Daily in an email. “We began working on diversity and inclusion recommendations before all of the planning processes were completed, and have continued that work.”

Núñez, a former TCU Senator who was involved in many student activist efforts over the course of his time at Tufts, said that even if this process was not meant to intentionally delay action to combat racial inequities at the university, administrators’ lack of urgency demonstrated a misunderstanding of the needs of students of color.

“This might not be malicious intent, but it also shows there is no emergency to the issues that students raise,” Núñez said.

“We have to remember that universities are spaced not like the rest of their lives … if a student has real issues of feeling misplaced there, they can’t just go home and feel at ease. And by the university not treating it with the same emergency that students do, you have these long periods of inaction.”

Tufts alumna Jameelah Morris (A’13), who was co-president of PAA during her time at Tufts and helped organize the 2011 demonstration, said the establishment of a council in general was not even one of the demands student protesters presented and that the lukewarm response was indicative of an unwillingness to enact real change.

The council’s 2013 report was not the first of its kind. In 1996, the university created a Task Force on Race, whose report to the community a year later included recommendations such as requiring faculty and staff to participate in “a workshop that deals exclusively with issues of race awareness and diversity,” that the Admissions Department “make inroads in expanding the diversity of our student population” and “the addition of at least three new tenure track positions in American race and ethnic studies.”

If these recommendations seem familiar, it’s because they’re very similar to some of the actions listed in the 2013 report from the Council on Diversity, which include “increas[ing] the awareness and understanding of issues of diversity and inclusion in faculty through professional development activities,” as well as to “review the undergraduate co-curricu-

lar experience with focused attention to issues of diversity and inclusion.”

“For something like the Council on Diversity to work, it has to be intentional in trying to target and solve these issues,” Morris said. “Otherwise, you end up with the same four to five-year cycle of non-action or minimal action that’s been going on since this fight started.”

By the time the university’s first Chief Diversity Officer, Mark Brimhall-Vargas, was hired in 2015 and began to follow through on some of the recommendations of the council, almost five years had passed since students had gathered to demand changes in curriculum, resource allocation and cultural competency training, among other things.

Also in 2015, another student protest was held at which participants demanded, once again, that Tufts improve its commitment to diversity and resources for its African American students.

To recap, this was three years after the Diversity Council released its recommendations, five years after the 2011 occupation of Ballou to which the Council was a response, 19 years after the Task Force on Race’s recommendations were released, and 47 years since the Africana Center was founded without faculty resources for an accompanying academic department, which it was finally given in 2012.

In 2016, some of the demands repeated

by African American students over the years were addressed: Linda Daniels, a woman of color, was hired as a staff psychologist, and a new pre-orientation program called Students’ Quest for Unity in the African Diaspora (SQUAD) was implemented.

McMahon said new groups of students often ask for different or further changes once the administration has met their predecessors’ demands thanks to the ever-changing nature of the student body.

“I’ve had the experience before of investing heavily in change on a campus, and then thinking we’ve made a lot of progress, and then we have to think about something else,” she said, referring to campuses she’d worked at prior to coming to Tufts.

For students of color, activism is often synonymous with fighting for equal treatment and resources.

Núñez argued that in the case of the council on diversity, it was clear that the university was using delay tactics to avoid addressing sensitive issues in the hopes that the loudest students would be replaced by a student body less concerned with the issue.

“The thing the university really does, the tool they have the most capacity for, is to delay. That’s important because students graduate in four years. So, a movement

that might have strong leaders on campus, if they delay long enough they know those students will graduate, and they hope that that movement will die,” he said.

According to Morris, one of the reasons PAA asked for specific resources rather than a committee to assess the need for them was because members were aware that these solutions tended to benefit the university more than aggrieved students.

“Students who are brought on to task forces are often just there to affirm what [the university] has already decided they want to do,” she said. “If I’m a student sitting on a Council on Diversity, I can make recommendations all day, but it’s very clear where the power actually lies.”

Morris said that while PAA and other activist groups she worked with always took the “official” route to advocacy first — emailing administrators, issuing petitions, etc. — she also understood that this kind of communication would never be enough to foster institutional change, regardless of whether administrators were sympathetic to their concerns.

“At the end of the day, if I’m not getting responses, I’m taking whatever action I have left,” Morris said. “I had little interest in changing the moral compass of the university. I wanted to change where those dollars were going.”

The Africana Studies center was founded in 1969, but was not given the resources for a full academic department and major program until 2012, after protests in 2011 spearheaded by PAA finally capitalized on a forty-year fight pushing for them.

Morris said that being a student activist and a person of color was a unique position on campus. She said that because of the historic lack of diversity on college campuses like Tufts, one’s mere presence becomes political.

“Our presence on campus is automatically a tense point of conversation … to me, engaging actively with the university was never a choice. That choice lies with white students who might realize things are wrong and get involved, but I never saw it as a choice to be active.”

Núñez shared a similar opinion on what it’s like to be an activist of color at Tufts.

“When I was a student, ‘activist’ was a very racialized word. People would get called an activist without actually even being one, like, ‘Oh she’s a black girl who speaks about her experience on campus, so she’s an activist.’”

For Morris, this only goes to show how the experiences of Tufts’ students of color are pushed to the side by the university and the campus community.

“As a student of color, it was always clear that we were not a priority,” she said.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

ARTS&LIVING GALLERY REVIEW

MFA captivates crowds with ‘Botticelli and the Search for the Divine’

by Libby Langsner Assistant Arts Editor

In a correspondence regarding a Sandro Botticelli about to come on the market in 1894, Isabella Stewart Gardner’s main collection advisor Bernard Berenson famously posed to her: “How badly do you want a Botticelli?”

In response, Gardner secured “The Death of Lucretia” (1496-1504) before the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) could even get a bid on it. This story, along with many others surrounding Botticelli’s work and its influences can be found at the MFA’s current exhibition, “Botticelli and the Search for the Divine.” The show features the largest amount of Botticelli’s work ever on display in the United States.

It features works such as Botticelli’s “Venus” (1484-90) — not to be confused with “The Birth of Venus” (148486) — “Minerva and Centaur” (1482) and “Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John” (about 1495), along with many other masterworks. Many of the works presented are on loan from other museums, such as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Works from Botticelli’s teacher Filippo Lippi, his student Filippino Lippi and other contemporaries are also on display to provide context for the large body of Botticelli’s works.

What makes the show particularly breathtaking is the sheer amount of work placed alongside each other for one of the first times in recent history, as well as the collaborative effort that went into it: the show was organized by the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary and Italy’s Metamorfosi Associazione Culturale. It’s rare for multiple museums to come together and arrange such a prolific show, featuring works spanning every era of an artist’s career.

The gallery provides an intimate setting for the works, mimicking the altars that some of the works used to function as. An example of this is Botticelli’s “Christ on the Cross” (1480), a wooden sculpture placed on a pedestal in light, creating a dramatic shadow behind it. The full effect of the lighting, textures and three-dimensionality of

BOTTICELLI COURTESY LOUVRE MUSEUM

‘Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist’ (circa 1500) is on display at the MFA. the work can only be properly experienced in person, and is one of the many reasons why this show is a knockout.

Another stunning work located in the middle room of the show is “Minerva and the Centaur.” Botticelli is famous for his depictions of classical mythology, and this work is no exception. What is illustrated so vividly in this work is Botticelli’s attention to detail. Every one of the goddess Minerva’s baby hairs is depicted flying in the wind, while she

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looks at the centaur with a gaze only Botticelli could paint: slightly distant, as if she is zoning out, but tinged with boredom. The three-ring design on Minerva’s dress is the insignia of the Medici family, one of Botticelli’s patrons.

It is clear from Botticelli’s command of paint and naturalistic depictions of humans and nature that the painting represents not only the historical triumph of the Medicis, but also the triumph of Botticelli’s fictitious rendering of the myth of Minerva capturing nature as pointedly as possible.

One could even argue that Botticelli’s depiction of the natural world is more beautiful than the natural world itself, an ultimate triumph of man’s artistic abilities over the natural order.

One of the most stunning works in the show is the MFA’s own “Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist” (circa 1500), which is in the final gallery of the exhibition and is another example of Botticelli’s virtuosity in picturing the human form. The Virgin’s skin looks so soft that it creates an almost haptic effect, and her veil is so delicately painted that viewers cannot even see it from a distance. The painting requires close attention from the viewer, as the artist himself has put all of his attention into the details.

As the exhibition adequately demonstrates, the unwavering beauty of Botticelli’s works are impossible to ignore.

5 tuftsdaily.com

Tommy Gillespie On Location

I

Spain

n an early and pivotal scene in Pedro Almodóvar’s “Julieta” (2016), the young version of the titular character (Adriana Ugarte) rebuffs a conversation with an older man on a train. As she leaves and strikes up a conversation with fisherman Xoan (Daniel Grao), the train stops suddenly. With a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach, Julieta exits the train and looks ahead in the snowy countryside, where, as she feared, the older man she spurned has committed suicide. Falling into hysterics, she is comforted by Xoan. They soon have sex on the train, starting a relationship that eventually leads to marriage and a daughter.

The scene on the train is the beginning of the key theme in “Julieta,” one in which women like Julieta are conditioned by societal norms to blame themselves for events beyond their control. In particular, the film, which is based on stories by Alice Munro, deals with three key instances in which a seemingly innocuous interpersonal action Julieta takes leads to a death, two literally and one metaphorically.

The film opens with middle-aged Julieta (Emma Suárez) during a chance encounter in Madrid with her estranged daughter Antía’s best friend Beatriz (Michelle Jenner). This leads her to cancel her plans to move to Portugal with her boyfriend Lorenzo (Dario Grandinetti) and move into the apartment she lived in with Antía before their estrangement, pledging to finally tell Antía all the circumstances that led to it.

Almodóvar is one of the foremost storytellers about women in cinema, and the tale he weaves about Julieta and her tempestuous relationships with her husband and daughter delicately touches on a number of ways in which women come up against increasingly complex personal struggles. In the second death in the film, young Julieta is living with Xoan in a picturesque Basque fishing village with Antía in tow. There, their idyllic life is complicated by a number of issues, most significantly Xoan’s supposed infidelity—which Julieta is goaded into believing by their housekeeper Marian (Rossy de Palma)—and disagreements over how to raise Antía. Finally, they have a blowout argument about Xoan’s relationship with their friend, artist Ava (Inma Cuesta).

Xoan takes his boat out in a storm to blow off steam and is killed.

The third and final death is more difficult to process. Julieta, shattered by her husband’s death and her guilt, moves to Madrid, where Antía and Beatriz look after her and take charge of the household.

When Antía turns 18, she goes to a spiritual retreat and cuts off all contact with Julieta. However, it is left to the audience to deduce exactly who has died in a metaphorical sense. As Julieta ages into middle age in one shot, the young, vibrant woman she once was is instantly replaced by a reeling soul, devastated by loss. In the same sense, Antía loses the mother she once had and is forced to take on a leadership role herself. For Almodóvar’s women, the complexity of their loss becomes too overwhelming for them to have a relationship with each other.

Tommy Gillespie is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Tommy can be reached at thomas.gillespie@tufts.edu.

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Offices of Residential Life & Learning & Facilities

Residence Hall Closing Bulletin 617-627-3248  reslife@tufts.edu  https://students.tufts.edu/student-affairs/residential-life

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End of Semester Schedule: Continuous Quiet Hours: Begin at 11pm Tues., May 2nd - Fri., May 12th Reading Days: Wed. May 3rd & Thurs. May 4th Final Exams: Fri., May 5th - Fri., May 12th 13th

CLOSING CHECKLIST Staffed and unstaffed halls must complete this checklist. You may be charged for damages including, but not limited to, furniture, walls, floors, ceilings, closets, etc. Failure to properly check out of your room will result in a $50 fee assessed to your student account. Also, failure to properly clean your room will result in an Excessive Cleaning Charge of $250.00.

MOVE-OUT by NOON is on Sat., May for all non-graduating students.

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Senior Week: Mon., May 15th - Fri., May 19th Commencement: Sun., May 21st - Congrats Seniors! 



MOVE-OUT by NOON is on Mon., May for all graduating seniors.

22nd

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Check Out of Your Room: Be sure to check out with your RA, ARD, other ORLL or Facilities staff member before leaving campus. The staff person will conduct a visual inspection of your room and will note any damages that are beyond normal wear and tear. This information will be documented online within the housing portal. Damages will be assessed and the charges will be placed on your student account.

Key Return:





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  

for in your room.

Clean out micro-fridge and contact TSR for pickup instructions.

Throw away, take home, compost or donate all food.

Empty and clean all closets, dressers, desks, and drawers.

Remove all personal trash and dispose of in dumpsters outside your building.

Please DO NOT leave personal trash in the hallways of your building.

Sweep/vacuum your room and take care of general housekeeping.

Please remember to turn off stove if in suite/apartment/house.

Remove any tape residue/tacks from all doors and walls.

Don’t forget to take home bikes!

Donate unwanted items to Drop locations on campus.

Check out go.tufts.edu/getpacking for more information.

Report damages to your RA or other Staff Member.

Complete the Room Check-Out Process with your RA or ORLL Staff member. Failure to do so will result in a $50.00 improper check-out charge assessed to your student account.

Close/lock all windows and doors.

Return your key to a member of the Residential Life Staff before you leave campus.

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KEYS ARE TO BE RETURNED TO YOUR RA OR ORLL STAFF MEMBER BEFORE LEAVING CAMPUS. You will be charged $70.00 for room/suite keys not returned to ORLL staff at the end of the semester.

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 Make sure all furniture is accounted

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Please note: Charges for excessive trash/cleaning in the common areas of the residence halls will be split between all of the residents of the building. Minimum charges will start at $250.00.

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Tuesday, April 25, 2017 | Comics | THE TUFTS DAILY

tuftsdaily.com

Comics

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Miranda: “You’re a real news rookie, Shim”

Comics

SUDOKU

GARFIELD

BY JIM DAVIS

NON SEQUITUR

BY WILEY MILLER

Difficulty Level: Sneaking in guests for Spring Fling

Monday’s Solution

FOR RELEASE APRIL 25, 2017

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis CROSSWORD

ACROSS 1 Oysters are found in one 4 Campfire leftovers 9 Bowler’s challenge 14 Deli loaf 15 Kingdom 16 Escape detection by 17 Notable period 18 *Increases homeowner levies, say 20 “Pitching” or “sand” golf club 22 Tartan wrap 23 Candidate’s goal 24 *EMS group 27 2015 FedExCup champ Jordan 29 ’80s-’90s legal drama 33 Williams in the Country Music Hall of Fame 34 “Brokeback Mountain” director 39 Go astray 40 Dutch financial powerhouse 41 *Meaty barbecued pork dish 42 You, in Paris 43 Dessert with a crust 44 Corrects a pencil mistake 45 Soft “Hey!” 46 “Buzz off!”

48 Siouan speakers 50 *Marinara sauce ingredient 55 Medication 58 San Joaquin Valley problem 59 Prying type 62 *Restaurant chain named for a Rolling Stones hit 65 Make public 66 “Hello” Grammy winner 67 Part of an act 68 Mining supply 69 French hat 70 Smooths in shop class 71 Pig’s pad DOWN 1 Coffee or tea 2 Fictional governess

By C.C. Burnikel

3 Double 4 Take into custody 5 Pirate’s milieu 6 Japanese 17syllable poem 7 Borden spokescow 8 Silvery food fish 9 Ready to go 10 Blood component 11 Very fancy 12 Creative spark 13 Trial run 19 Sault __ Marie 21 Adorkable one 25 Rocker, e.g.

26 Tavern drinks 27 Ocean crossers 28 __ button 30 Chant for D.C.’s baseball club 31 Cropped up 32 Court orders 35 Org. with Warriors and Wizards 36 Alfa Romeo sports cars 37 Tell tall tales 38 Surrey town known for salts 41 San __: Riviera resort 45 Hors d’oeuvres spread

4/25/17

Monday’s Solution Monday’s Puzzle Solved

©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

47 Diamond-shaped pattern 49 Go along 51 The Spartans of the NCAA 52 “Don’t make __!”

53 Puccini premiere of 1900 54 Nash who rhymed “grackle” with “debacle” 55 Dull

4/25/17

56 Lacking manners 57 Popular rideshare app 60 Window shade 61 Pretentiously cultured, and a phonetic hint to the answers to starred clues 63 Spring Festival : China :: __ : Vietnam 64 “What else?”

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THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Tuesday, April 25, 2017

tuftsdaily.com

TH

ELECTIONS ARE WEDNESDAY APRIL 26 !

1. Log onto SIS 2. Click on Student Living and then Webcenter 3. Elections Online 4. Vote!

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1/8 FULL AD

Hi Tufts, my name is Benya Kraus! I'm a rising senior majoring in International Relations and minoring in Colonialism Studies and Urban Studies.

Home to me means a lot of things. I've found home in the street noodles of Bangkok, Thailand, where I was born and attended high school. I've found home in the community theater in Livingston, New Jersey, where I lived for eight years. I've found home in the corn fields of Waseca, Minnesota where I spent every summer with my family growing up. And now I've found my home at Tufts.

I've served on the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate as a Class of 2018 senator since my first year here. For the past three years, I've been a member of the Allocations Board, charged with funding and budgeting all student organizations on campus. I've served as the Chair of the Student Outreach Committee for two years, and this past year, served on the Executive Board as the Diversity & Community Affairs Officer.

Some of my major achievements on the TCU Senate include establishing Indigenous Peoples' Day in place of "Columbus Day" at Tufts, organizing Tufts' first ever Indigenous Peoples' Day celebration in October 2016, serving as an active voice on the Student Life Review Committee this past semester, creating and overseeing the first "Two Minute Thursday" senate outreach initiative, personally budgeting over 100 student organizations over the past three years, being a member of the internal Senate Strategic Planning Committee tasked with reviewing and improving Senate's operating structures for next year, and overseeing successful projects, such as the Swipe It Forward meal bank initiative, as the Chair of the Culture, Ethnicity, and Community Affairs Committee (CECA).

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Outside of the TCU Senate, I'm also actively involved with Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), serving as the Massachusetts State Legislative Coordinator, a member of the AIUSA National Strategic Planning Committee, and the selected Youth Delegate representing AIUSA at the International Council Meeting this summer where the movement's global policies, priorities, and governance structure will be voted upon. I'm also currently a Woman's Program Intern at the North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB), where I work with Native women who are survivors of domestic violence.

Opinion

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

OP-ED

Reactive Citizenship

by Daniel Weaver

Chairman of the Board of Trustees Peter R. Dolan’s email to students and faculty regarding the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate’s recent resolution on divestment titled “Affirming Tufts University’s Policy on Divestment Proposals,” should remind us, again, of the laughable tokenization of student power in the form of our so-called student government. Rather than signify student power, the obedient performance of our supposed “active citizenship” within the narrow confines of student government parodies actual engagement and confrontation with the status quo.

Dolan cites University President Anthony Monaco and Dean of Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life Alan Solomont’s “concerns about the process” by which the TCU Senate passed a resolution recommending divestment from corporations that assist in managing the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. I would add that TCU resolutions amount to little more than a comment card mailed to corporate headquarters, which in this case is Ballou. Dolan’s dismissal of the resolution should make this apparent, but if it doesn’t, I would urge students to consider the repeated failure of attempts to divest from the fossil fuel industry. The Board of Trustees reaffirmed their commitment to fossil fuel companies after a TCU Senate resolution was passed in favor of divestment four years ago, in 2013. They did it again after students staged a sit-in of Monaco’s office two years ago, in April 2015, and yet again when faculty voted overwhelmingly for divestment a year ago, in May 2016. When it counts, Ballou meets the political engagement of its students as well as its faculty with silence and inaction. When it matters, active citizenship is mocked by the university.

There is the matter of the symbolic power of the April 9 resolution in regard to Israel, but,

as usual, the university’s investment portfolio determines its political stance, and so it will always mark the limits of the university’s willingness to capitulate to the political demands made by its students. These limits have never and will never extend far beyond fashionable liberal politics.

David Westby and I argued in an April 13 op-ed that concerns raised about the process of the April 9 resolution distract from the un-democracy of Israeli political reality. This is a position we would continue to defend, but I believe that even this line of critique distracts from the rampant un-democracy on campus, which is related to a national state of un-democracy. Discussions that bring concern about the process of the TCU Senate to the foreground inevitably fail to register the appalling and demonstrable lack of democratic power extended to students by the Board of Trustees and by Ballou.

Power at this university is concentrated neither in TCU, nor any student-run body, but entirely in the Board of Trustees. President Monaco is paid by the Board, and he answers to the Board. The political structure of our university resembles democracy far less than the hideously wealthy cabinet assembled by our billionaire President Donald Trump and ratified by our millionaires in the Senate. These individuals represent students and citizens only in the most deprived sense of the word.

Instead, they represent the “interests” of students or citizens only insofar as students identify their own interests with the financial assets of the university, or with the stock index. I have overheard students claim that the university is, in fact, a business, and so it should not be reproached for acting like one.

This view conveniently evades articulating a position on whether or not the university should resemble a business, but in either case it does not excuse the ridiculous charade of student government and democracy that occupies and delimits the political rhetoric on this campus. It does not excuse in the least

the continued administrative reproach of student-demonstrated power. This charade works tirelessly to conceal the operation of power as it actually occurs.

It did not take four years on campus for me to generate the suspicion that only students who organize outside of student government demonstrate any actual political power or articulate substantive critique, but four years on this campus have irreversibly confirmed that suspicion. Chairman Dolan’s email and the uproar over the TCU Senate’s disregard for democracy, which has never even remotely existed on this campus, should make this apparent for all of us.

Unless some of our fellow students here have forgotten: It took a student hunger strike, amidst other action, to defeat the university’s plan to escalate the systemic depreciation and objectification of the janitorial workforce and to layoff 35 janitorial workers.

Before announcing a less destructive plan for restructuring the cleaning workforce, our administration waited and watched the Tufts Labor Coalition encampment next to Ballou for five days. Ballou has been waiting and watching on divestment for four years and counting. All the while, the Tisch College delivers sermons on active citizenship and funnels student power into structures which exist only to disarm it.

Ballou can well afford, as Dolan points out, to reaffirm that our university “must remain an incubator of ideas, knowledge and perspectives” precisely because the Board of Trustees has zero obligation to act on any moral imperatives to which the pursuit of ideas, knowledge and perspective might point, whether it be divestment from Israel and fossil-fuels, or the humane treatment of university staff.

Deliberately and successfully, Ballou runs this university as nothing but a parody of active citizenship.

Daniel Weaver is a senior majoring in English. He can be reached at daniel. weaver@tufts.edu.

BEWARE

SHANNON GEARY The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community.

The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.

EDITORIALS Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily.

OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself.

Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions.

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9 tuftsdaily.com

by Nesi Altaras Looking In

E

Macron

mmanuel Macron, 39 year-old French presidential candidate and former minister of the economy, industry and digital affairs under President François Hollande finished Sunday’s first round election in first place with around 23 percent of the vote. Macron left the Socialist Party in 2009 and quit the Hollande government in 2016 to start his own party, En Marche. He has never served in elected office and was a banker before he became an economic advisor.

However, none of this can be found in the headlines in American news talking about the election. Americans are more interested in the second-place finisher Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front. Le Pen has long been a fascination for American pundits trying to weave a global doomsday scenario encompassing Brexit, Trump, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Le Pen and other rising right-wing nationalist parties across liberal democracies.

This narrative is collapsing. Though it may seem small, the Dutch election last month was a harbinger of what isn’t coming: a right-wing populist takeover. The anti-Islamist party of Geert Wilders remained at virtually the same level, the current liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte kept his position and the left raised its share of the parliament.

The American perception of the French election was an inevitable Le Pen win, thus all stories were about how Le Pen hasn’t won yet. The National Front has been at the same level of support for over a decade and her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, reached the second round in the presidential election of 2002. The Le Pens are not outsiders and they can never claim that label: Marine Le Pen has been in politics her entire life. The National Front making the second round is not a shocking new development shaking up the political dynamics of France.

It is Macron’s immense success as a true political outsider and triumph with a newly formed party in the center of a political system with hard divisions between parties and strong polarization of French politics.

Macron won over the candidates of the classic French parties, such as Benoit Hamon and Francois Fillon. In a polarized and ideological field, Macron won as a centrist. At a time when criticizing the European Union (EU) and its dysfunction yields automatic support, Macron ran as a defender of the EU and argued for its preservation and strengthening.

Macron was predicted by the polls to win and Le Pen was expected to come in second. Now, polls expect Macron to beat Le Pen badly, by over 20 points. Just like when Jean-Marie Le Pen made it to the second round, the establishment parties came together to for the Republican Pact to oppose the National Front. The new development is that the establishment is coming together behind an outsider centrist with a newly founded party. Fillon and Hamon have already endorsed Macron for the second round happening on May 7.

Le Pen coming in second is news, but Macron winning is bigger news. It shows that defending the European Union can be a winning position. Martin Schulz was surely taking notes from Macron for the German federal elections in September when he too will be defending the EU. Nesi Altaras is a sophomore majoring in international relations and economics. Nesi can be reached at nesi.altaras@tufts.edu.

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Tuesday, April 25, 2017 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

S p o rts

Jumbos remain optimistic after bouncing back from losses MEN'S TENNIS

continued from back [which] I can attribute to the guys on the team being behind me the whole time.”

Additionally, with victories in singles (6-1, 6-1 over junior John Hu at number two) and doubles (8-5) against the Coast Guard Academy, Niemiec finished the day with a perfect 3-0 record.

“Nathan [Niemiec] is such a professional player. The manner in which he conducts himself on the court is something that we all should try to emulate,” Kelly said. “He hits a good topspin ball on both sides, has good depth and

he’s able to move his opponents around quite well.”

The two victories from Saturday improved the No. 20 Jumbos’ record to 4-4 in the NESCAC and 8-6 overall. The team closes out the regular season next weekend by visiting No. 34 Brandeis and No. 4 Bowdoin, before turning its attention to NESCAC Championships on May 5-7.

“Every year we’ve played Brandeis and Bowdoin, it’s been really tight,” Kelly said. “It usually doesn’t help to think too far ahead because every match presents its unique challenges,

but [with the season] winding down, there’s a bit more of a tendency to think about [the NESCAC tournament].” “[This weekend] was a huge shift in momentum,” Scanlon added. “We’ll have a lot more confidence going into Bowdoin and NESCACs.” Despite the recent shift in fortune, Scanlon is adamant that the team’s attitude has, and will, remain constant. “[It’s] not going to change. We’re going to [continue] to have a positive, optimistic mindset,” Scanlon said. “We [feel] that Bowdoin and Brandeis are very beatable teams.”

Jumbos to focus on recovery ahead of championship season MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD

continued from back O’Connor’s strategy of pack running paid off, but he explained that it was not without risk.

“I forgot that a pack may make running a lot easier, but hurdling in a pack could be pretty hard,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor’s time remains first in Div. III, nearly three seconds ahead of the second place finisher, junior Brett Harms from University of Wisconsin, Whitewater.

While O’Connor traveled solo to Princeton to participate in the Invitational, the rest of the team competed in the Trinity College Invitational on Saturday.

In the same event his captain had dominated the day before, sophomore James Gregoire also claimed a win for the Jumbos, albeit only over four competitors, three of whom were fellow Jumbos. Tufts took first, second and third in the race.

Senior Tim Nichols put up another strong performance in the 5,000-meter, finishing with a 14:28.96, nearly a full minute faster than the second-place finisher. His time ranks him in the top-20 nationally in the 5,000-meter, one of two

events in which he holds a nationally ranked time this spring.

“The team performed pretty well given the conditions,” Nichols said. “On the distance side, we saw a lot of [personal records] in the 3k steeplechase and the 5k … People are definitely starting to gear up for NESCACs this coming weekend.”

The Jumbos dominated the 800meter run, claiming four of the top five spots in the event. First-year Matt D’Anieri ran a 1:56.80 to claim the title, closely followed by fellow first-year Roman Lovell (1:58.46), and sophomore Hiroto Watanabe (1:58.76) to round out the top three.

Veterans showed their experience for the Jumbos in the hurdles, as sophomore Josh Etkind took first in the 110-meter hurdles with a 15.26 and senior tri-captain Nick Usoff took the 400-meter crown with a 54.88-second showing.

The Jumbos also added second-place showings in the javelin throw and the long jump, from sophomore Henry Hintermeister, who claimed second place by two centimeters, and junior Linus Gordon, respectively.

While the Jumbos took advantage of some opportunities this weekend

ahead of their first postseason meets of the spring, O’Connor explained that such showings have not allowed the Jumbos to become complacent going into NESCACs. “While I know we can still compete and finish well at NESCACs, I think we are not seeded as well as we would have hoped or liked,” O’Connor said. “It feels like we’re more of an underdog this time around.”

In the week leading up to the first postseason meet of the year for the Jumbos, the team is finishing its training and focusing on rest and recovery ahead of the meet.

“Training differs from person to person,” O’Connor said. “But generally, guys are tapering training based on when they expect to finish their season.”

The Jumbos kick off the championship season Saturday at Bowdoin with the NESCAC Championships, which Nichols explained is the focus of the program in the spring.

“The major goal of the postseason is to win NESCACs,” he said. “I think we have a really good shot at the title because of the quality of athletes we have in every event group and the depth that we see in a lot of events.”

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Sam Nowicki Teeing Off

Chappell’s highs, Poulter’s lows, and Major outlook

H

ello friends, Sam Nowicki here.

Welcome to my final column of the school year. Also, major props to anyone who caught the reference of the first sentence. Slide into my DMs, we’ll be good friends.

This past week at the Valero Texas Open, Kevin Chappell broke through for his first career victory in his 180th start on the PGA Tour. The 30-year-old American held off the late charge by Brooks Koepka and won by a stroke with a brilliant birdie on his final hole of the tournament. After draining the putt, Chappell exploded with excitement as his victory was clinched.

The reaction and the tournament in general provided great entertainment.

Congrats, Kevin!

Other news from this week: Ian Poulter lost his tour card after failing to make cut.

Poulter was playing this season on a medical extension after an injury last year. A two-time World Golf Championship winner, 12-time European Tour winner, Ryder Cup superstar and former fifth-ranked player in the world, Poulter needed to earn about $30,000, meaning he needed a top-40 finish at the Valero Texas Open. He missed the cut by two strokes, however, and earned a whopping $0. This left him short of the top 125 on the money list (for the 2015-2016 season) needed to guarantee his tour card for the rest of the season.

Poulter will now be back playing on the Euro Tour, and only on the PGA Tour when he receives a sponsor’s exemption.

I’ll wrap up this week’s coverage and launch into some headlines for the remainder of the season being as this is the last time you’ll hear from me for a while… I know, big relief.

The U.S. Open is at Erin Hills in Wisconsin this year and will take place June 15th-18th, finishing on Father’s Day (#patriarchyprobs). Dustin Johnson is the defending champion, and I expect to see a fired-up DJ after he was forced to withdraw from The Masters because of a freak back injury.

The 146th Open Championship (colloquially known as the British Open) will take place July 20-23 at Royal Birkdale.

Birkdale has hosted 10 opens with great champions such as Johnny Miller, Ian Baker Finch, Tom Watson, Mark O’Meara, Lee Trevino and, of course, Arnold Palmer.

My early pick to win the Open was Alex Noren, but I’m going to pull back on that pick and instead go super mainstream with Jordan Spieth. He seems like the horse for the course, as they say.

The PGA Championship will be played at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina on Aug. 10-13. The year’s final shot at glory has become the Cinderellastory major in recent years, with many first-time winners and even relative unknowns winning the tournament in the past decade (sans Rory McIlroy in 2012 and 2014 and Jason Day in 2015). Firsttime major winner Jimmy Walker is the defending champion. My way-too-early pick for this tournament is Justin Thomas; hopefully, the young American can find his incredible early season form that got him three wins already this season.

It has been a pleasure, y’all. Thanks for reading. And I hope everyone gets to spend a little time on the links this summer. God bless.

Sam Nowicki is a junior majoring in biochemistry. Sam can be reached at samuel. nowicki@tufts.edu.

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Sports

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

MEN’S TENNIS

Tufts rolls to victories over Hamilton, Coast Guard Academy

by Caleb Symons Staff Writer

The last few weeks have been objectively difficult for the Tufts men’s tennis team. Yet as the losses to highly ranked opponents piled up, the Jumbos refused to succumb to negativity. Speaking after the team’s 6-3 loss to No. 9 Williams on April 16, junior Rohan Gupte reflected this optimism.

“If we keep playing like we have against the top teams, I think we’ll end up winning a lot more matches,” Gupte said.

The first sign of the Jumbos’ resurgence came on Thursday, when the team recorded a crucial, 6-3 victory over the Bates Bobcats. Two days later, Tufts broke out completely, emerging victorious from its doubleheader against Hamilton and the Coast Guard Academy. Not only did the team win both matches 9-0, but it did not drop a single set all day.

“It was the only time all season that we had to play back-to-back matches, which meant, for some people, up to five [or] six hours of tennis,” senior tri-captain Kevin Kelly said. “It [was] great to overcome the physical and mental challenge.”

Tufts began play at 9 a.m., seeking to continue their rebound from the prior week’s losses at the expense of a Hamilton squad that entered the match winless in conference play. Tufts jumped out to a quick lead, sweeping the three doubles matches, with the number one tandem of Gupte and junior Zain Ali winning 8-0. The team refused to ease off the gas in singles as no Jumbo lost more than three games in any set.

Against Hamilton, Tufts rolled out a fairly typical lineup with one notable exception. Playing the first ever sin-

gles match of his college career, senior tri-captain Austin Bendetson seamlessly slid into the sixth position, cruising to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Hamilton senior Devin White. The Andover, Mass. native had the crowd — including his teammates — in a frenzy, according to firstyear Jason Scanlon. “[Austin]’s a fun guy to watch because he always has some tricks up his sleeve,” Scanlon said. “Being on the team for four years, he still [brings] that emotion and fire to every match.”

Just a few hours later, the team was back on the Gantcher Center courts for a non-conference matchup with the Coast Guard Academy. Once again, the Jumbos got off to a hot start in doubles, with coach Karl Gregor taking the opportunity to mix up his lineup. In the second doubles position, sophomore Ross Kamin and first-year Nathan Niemiec replaced the stalwart duo of first-year Zach Shaff and senior Ben Battle (the latter instead paired with Ali in number one doubles) and defeated their opponents, 8-5.

The convincing performance also allowed Tufts to enjoy some much-needed rest after an eightday stretch in which it played five matches. The team made five changes to the singles lineup that took on Hamilton earlier in the day, as a trio of Jumbos saw their first action since mid-March. In the fifth singles, junior Justin Brogan beat sophomore Jack Phillips 6-2, 6-1, while Scanlon (6-3, 6-2) and first-year Willy Gold (7-5, 6-4) also recorded wins.

“I lost the first two points, and [my opponent] was fired up, so I had to step it up,” Scanlon said. “I was really aggressive and confident in all of my shots, see MEN'S TENNIS, page 11

ANGELIE XIONG / THE TUFTS DAILY

Junior Jack Friend hits the ball during the match against Bates College on April 20.

MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD

O’Connor puts up top time in 3,000-meter steeple as Jumbos look to NESCACs

by Eddie Samuels

Executive Sports Editor

Adding to what has already been an illustrious career at Tufts, senior tri-captain Luke O’Connor notched one of the best times in the nation in the 3,000 steeplechase at the first of two meets over the weekend.

O’Connor put up the result on Friday in Princeton’s Larry Ellis Invitational. He competed against a diverse field, including professionals and athletes from several divisions. O’Connor’s 9:03.24 time placed him fifth in the race and second among collegiate athletes, behind only Div. I Central Conn. junior Austin Trainor.

“I had a pretty loose strategy going into my steeple on Friday,” O’Connor said. “I knew that I would be racing with a really good crew, so I wanted to be toward the front of the middle of the pack. From there I tried to find guys who were going about my pace and work as a pack.”

MAX LALANNE / THE TUFTS DAILY

Junior Andrew DiMaiti sprints with the baton in a relay during the meet on April 15.

see MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD, page 11