10.7.15

Highly anticipated “Black Mass” fails to rise above tropes of gangster film genre see ARTS AND LIVING / PAGE 5

Reggie Love discusses career in sports, politics

Water polo finishes season undefeated, aniticipates success at Division Championship Tournament see SPORTS/ Back Page

see SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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T HE T UFTS D AILY

VOLUME LXX, NUMBER 19

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

tuftsdaily.com

Tufts Climate Action members discuss fossil fuel Fletcher alumnus divestment with trustees appointed new chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff

by Ariel Barbieri-Aghib Contributing Writer

September to $2.6 trillion this September,” he said. “The Board’s hesitance about divestment…comes from a lack of mutual funds… [but] we made sure that they knew that the financial industry is creating fossil-free funds and that that excuse is no longer valid.”

According to Dolan, the meeting resulted in the formation of a working group in the Provost’s Office that will plan a university symposium on climate change and fossil fuel divestment.

McGough, a junior, also commented on the slated symposium.

“The administration seems willing to cooperate with us on pursuing other avenues to address the climate crisis, whether that be a symposium on different mechanisms for addressing the issue or thinking more about sustainability and endowment funds,” he said.

The symposium may include a debate between people interested in divestment and those who think there are other actions that can be taken, such as the institution of carbon pricing, according to McGough.

“We hope that the symposium, at its best, can provide a means for the university to explain why they haven’t divested yet and be open to the community on this issue,” Jacqz said.

The TCA members said they could not comment on what will happen directly after the meeting but did say they are waiting on Provost and Senior Vice President David Harris before the next meeting will be scheduled.

Fletcher School alumnus General Joseph Dunford (F ’92) has begun his new role as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking military officer in the country. Dunford succeeds General Martin E. Dempsey, who officially retired on Oct. 1.

The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Dunford to the top military position on July 29, after President Obama nominated him, according to an article from the Military Times.

As the newly appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dunford’s role during his two-year term will be to advise the president on all aspects of military affairs, according to an article on Tufts Now. “My role will be to assist the Secretary of Defense, the President and the Congress in making decisions that will result in a Joint Force [all the branches of the military] that is properly prepared to secure our interests today — and tomorrow,” Dunford said in the Tufts Now article.

At a ceremony in the Rose Garden in May, Obama talked about the high regard in which he holds Dunford.

“I know Joe. I trust him,” Obama said. “He’s already proven his ability to give me his unvarnished military advice based on his experience on the ground. [He’s] one of our military’s most highly regarded strategic thinkers.”

During his Senate confirmation hearings, Dunford said that the many threats to American security present him with a difficult agenda.

“I believe the biggest challenge facing the military in the next few years will be to address existent challenges while simultaneously building the force our nation will need in the future,” he said.

Dunford has called Russia the greatest threat to American security, according to Tufts Now. “If you look at their behavior, it’s nothing short of alarming,” he said.

Dunford left his job as commandant of the Marine Corps to assume his new position after serving in the Marines for many years.

From early 2013 until August 2014, Dunford was in command of American and coalition forces in Afghanistan. The general also previously commanded the 2nd Battalion of the 6th Marines, worked as vice director for operations on the Joint Staff, reported to the

see DIVESTMENT, page 2

see DUNFORD, page 2

Evan Sayles / The Tufts Daily

Juniors and Tufts Climate Action members Brian McGough, Shana Gallagher, and Henry Jacqz pose for a portrait in the Terrace Room on Monday, Oct. 5, 2015.

by Sarah Zheng

Executive News Editor

Three students from Tufts Climate Action (TCA) met with university administrators and trustees on Monday to discuss climate change and to push for the Tufts endowment fund to be divested from fossil fuel industries.

The meeting follows a three-day TCA sit-in last April that demanded fossil fuel divestment, resulting in an April 24 agreement between students and the university. The terms of the agreement were such that TCA members would be allowed to meet with trustees to continue the conversation on divestment and that an outside expert on divestment would speak with the Sustainability Fund’s advisory committee. The agreement mandated that the meeting include Chairman of the Board of Trustees Peter Dolan and trustee Gloria WhiteHammond, and that it take place before the Board of Trustees meeting in November.

TCA members Shana Gallagher, Henry Jacqz and Brian McGough volunteered to represent the student climate group at the meeting, which, as per the April agreement, included Dolan and White-Hammond. According to McGough, the meeting also included university Executive Vice President Patricia Campbell, Chief Investment Officer Sally Dungan and Chair of the Investment Committee for the Board of Trustees Laurie Gabriel, as well as a number of professors: Paul Joseph from the sociology department, Jonathan Kenny from the chemistry department, Gil Metcalf from the economics department and Ann

Partly Cloudy 72 / 47

Rappaport, a lecturer in the Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning program.

According to Dolan, the meeting saw a useful exchange of views between students, faculty, trustees and administrators.

Gallagher, a junior, said she also felt the meeting went well, and although the university did not agree to divest from fossil fuels, they did not rule it out for the future.

“Going in we didn’t…think that we were going to get divestment, that’s not what this was about,” she said. “Not everyone there was in full support of divestment, but it’s by no means off the table, and I think that it is one of multiple…avenues of addressing the climate crisis that the administration is prepared to consider.”

According to Jacqz, a junior, the meeting provided a forum for TCA members and other students to express their concerns about climate change and to highlight the ways in which shifting financial landscapes have made divestment more attractive.

“One of the largest successes that we felt as three students representing the group was in expressing and communicating how drastically the landscape for a divestment initiative at Tufts has changed since the original working group of the board considered divestment,” he said.

Jacqz added that the students told the Board of Trustees that the amount of money that has been divested from fossil fuel industries has increased 50-fold in the past year.

“The funds that have been divested from fossil fuels went from $50 billion last

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, October 7, 2015

tuftsdaily.com

News News

Annual National Coming Out Day Rally promotes celebration of identity

by Melissa Kain News Editor

The annual National Coming Out Day Rally, which gives students an opportunity to discuss their personal experiences with gender and sexuality is taking place on the Lower Campus Center Patio this afternoon.

According to Abigail Mendez, a Team Q Peer Leader at the LGBT Center, today’s rally will feature a variety of speakers, including Humanist-in-Residence Walker Bristol, faculty members and students from LGBT Center discussion groups. The event will also have an open-mic portion, in which members of the audience can choose to spontaneously participate, she said.

“This is something that is really great, and what usually happens is people in the audience who feel like they want to speak at the event can just…say what they want to say in front of the audience,” Mendez, a senior, said. “It’s a really nice, more flexible schedule at the end.”

Attendees at the rally also have access to free rainbow flags to support the Pride Flag Campaign, pins, buttons and safe sex supplies, she said.

The rally is held in conjunction with National Coming Out Day, celebrated each year on Oct. 11 and “which [promotes] a safe world for LGBT individuals to live truthfully and openly,” according to the Human Rights Campaign website.

Mendez, who works on the outreach and education branch of Team Q, helped to coordinate the event along with student groups

on campus. She said that the event proves to be a positive result of collaboration between groups on campus.

Bruce Bausk, a Team Q Peer Leader and a member of the Tufts Queer Students Association (QSA), said QSA was one of the groups who were part of the rally planning process.

“We are helping organize the National Coming Out Day Rally a little bit and providing Team Q with funds to help make this event come together,” Bausk, a senior, said.

He explained that QSA has recently been restructured, so it can help support other queer groups on campus.

“This is an example of QSA functioning in that format,” Bausk said.

According to Bristol, the Tufts Chaplaincy also likes to have a presence at the rally to convey its support for the LGBT community.

“The Chaplaincy…has wanted to have a presence at the rally, because…we very much see ourselves as part of the grander caregiving network,” Bristol, who is Tufts’ first humanist chaplain, said.

According to Bausk, both the rally and the work done by LGBT groups on campus bring together people from a variety of experiences and identities.

“I think that, historically, the National Coming Out Day Rally is a space where people have gotten up to speak about their sexual identities and their gender identities,” Bausk said. “But at this event we, of course, welcome anyone to share any stories that they feel are coming out

Nicholas Pfosi / The Tufts Daily

Sergeant Christopher McGee, TUPD’s LGBT Liaison, speaks during the National Coming Out Day Rally on the Lower Campus Center Patio on October 8th, 2014. in a sense, however that is defined for the individual.”

Mendez echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the importance of making students feel welcome at the event.

“There is a difference between the people who feel very comfortable doing this kind of coming out specifically for a coming out event and [the] people who maybe aren’t comfortable coming out yet,” Mendez said. “So we try to keep that in mind when we’re planning the event.”

Mendez added that it is never too late for students to get involved with the LGBT Center.

“Even if you don’t go to the discussion groups or to LGBT Center events at the begin-

ning of the semester, the Center is still open, and it is always…inclusive [of] people who want to come to these events,” she said. “We love having discussions and learning from each other. [We] are really just continuously trying to foster an inclusive, exploratory, accepting environment.”

Bausk said that the emphasis on inclusivity is mirrored in the way that LGBT groups on campus look at the National Coming Out Day Rally.

“We encourage people to come out at their own pace…and…they are also welcome to get involved with the Center or with any groups at their own pace,” Bausk said. “We are an open space for everyone, whenever.”

Tufts Climate Action continues to pursue fossil fuel divestment for Tufts DIVESTMENT

continued from front Jacqz added that the community has expressed a lot of support for divestment, which was another point he and the other TCA members tried to communicate to Dolan and the Board at the meeting.

Previously, Gallagher told the Daily that the campaign to divest from fossil fuels was launched in Fall 2012 by students from TCA, which was then called Tufts Divest For Our Future. A student referendum, a TCU Senate vote, a faculty petition and an alumni petition reported that 74 percent of the student body, 45 faculty members and 200 alumni supported divestment, according to Gallagher and the Tufts Divest website.

Administrators at the meeting brought up steps that Tufts has already taken to reduce the university’s carbon emissions and to address climate change, according to Gallagher.

Gallagher provided the Daily with a document that Campbell gave to TCA members at the meeting. The document states that the university has taken steps toward sustainabil-

ity with the construction of the New Central Energy Plant on the Medford/Somerville campus, the establishment of a policy for achieving LEEDS certification for their major building projects, collaboration with the MBTA and surrounding communities for the Green Line Extension Project, waste management and recycling initiatives and the installation of two solar panels on the Grafton campus.

McGough and Jacqz said the university has also emphasized its creation of the Tufts Sustainability Fund, approved by the trustees in November 2014 as a place for sustainable investing.

“They created that because they wanted to point us away from divestment,” Jacqz said.

According to Dolan, the university-wide Tufts Divestment Working Group issued a January 2014 report that reviewed prospects of divesting the endowment from fossil fuels.

“Restructuring the endowment to include only managers of fossil-fuel-free funds would cause a meaningful impact on the diversification and risk/return profile of Tufts’ endowment,” the report said.

Dolan said that he and the Board of Trustees continue to stand by that report.

“Tufts trustees continue to be concerned about climate change and we support the university’s continued involvement on this issue,” he told the Daily in an email via Executive Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler. “It is important for us to learn more about leading edge thinking on how best to address this complex challenge and the role that Tufts can play in finding answers.”

Gallagher said she thinks that the steps the university has taken are good, but that more needs to be done.

“Institutions are supposed to be places of truth and leadership,” she said. “Considering the urgency of the climate crisis and that it is a question of justice and human lives…we feel that just doing things kind of internally is not enough …

We have the opportunity and the responsibility to implicate the political system in this country, and I think that this is the issue of our time.”

Members of TCA were penalized for their April sit-in, which Gallagher said she and one other student, sophomore Dylan Carlson, are

still appealing. According to Gallagher, they have a hearing on Oct. 23 to appeal their disciplinary action, though many other members of TCA have decided not to appeal.

“That’s an example of civil disobedience that I fully admit I’m guilty of, but again it’s because this is the moral issue of our time so the disproportionate punishment that [we] are facing is pretty shameful in my opinion,” she said. “I definitely plan on using this opportunity to educate the Tufts community more about the urgency of action that is required.”

All three TCA members believe that Tufts will eventually divest from fossil fuels.

“It won’t be advantageous financially to hold investments in fossil fuels, so [divestment] will happen eventually,” McGough said.

Jacqz added that the university is making a political statement by staying invested in fossil fuels.

“I think it’s inevitable, whether the Board drags their feet and makes a mess of it [or not],” Jacqz said. “It’s really about whether Tufts wants to be a part of the solution or to ignore the political reality.”

Fletcher graduate transitions into role as new chairman of Joint Chiefs DUNFORD

continued from front chairman of the Joint Chiefs and led the 5th Marine Regiment during the Iraq War in 2003, according to the Tufts Now story.

Dunford also previously served under former Admiral James Stavridis, who is now the Dean of the Fletcher School, in Afghanistan.

“It was wonderful to have General Dunford, a proud Fletcher graduate, back on campus [recently],” Stavridis told the Daily in an email.

“As the senior military officer of the United States, he is deeply influential in all elements of international policy.”

According to Fletcher Professor Richard Shultz, Dunford’s former professor and advisor at Tufts, Dunford’s potential was made evident by his

promotion in the ranks by General James Conway, a former head of the Marine Corps.

“He was a one-star general, and the commandant of the Marine Corps,” Shultz said.

“General Conway had a three-star job that he needed to put a two-star marine in. He looked at all of his two stars, and despite knowing that Dunford was a one-star, thought, ‘This guy will be more effective in this job than any of my two-stars,’ so General Conway promoted him from one star to three stars.”

Dunford’s promotion was an unusual occurrence, according to Shultz.

“This is impossible to believe; it never happens,” Shultz said. “An assistant professor doesn’t become a full-time professor without becoming an associate professor.”

According to Shultz, Dunford was born in Boston, Mass. and grew up in Quincy, Mass., where he studied at the prestigious Boston College High School. Dunford then graduated from Saint Michael’s College and received his commission as an officer shortly thereafter. He later attended the Marine Corps University as well as the Ranger School. Dunford continued his higher education with a Master of Arts degree from Georgetown University, and then a second Master of Arts degree in International Relations from the Fletcher School. “[He was] about as down-to-earth a person as one can be,” Shultz said.

He added that Dunford was not a very intimidating man, which made him a good leader, and that Dunford’s intelligence perme-

ated any community of which he was a part.

Dunford said that his time at Fletcher has helped him during his experiences in the military.

“I left Fletcher with a better understanding of the intersection of policy and strategy,” he told Tufts Now. “That understanding has been invaluable in my recent assignments in Afghanistan and Washington.”

While at Fletcher, Dunford received the Robert B. Stewart Award, which is awarded to an outstanding first-year student, according to Shultz. Dunford was also the top student in his class at Fletcher, receiving As in each of the eight courses he took.

“He is a perfect example of putting a Fletcher degree to use in a very practical way,” Stavridis said.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Features

pg.3 tuftsdaily.com

Emma Arnesty-Good Hairy Woman

Becoming a girl

SHIRLEY WANG / THE TUFTS DAILY

Green Line Extension project faces $1 billion in excess costs

by Kendall Todd Features Editor

Tufts students and Somerville/ Medford residents anticipating the public transportation update promised by the Green Line Extension Project (GLX) may have even more waiting to do; Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority (MBTA) officials announced on Aug. 21 that the project will cost between $700 million and $1 billion more than originally planned.

The GLX project, which would extend the Green Line from its existing Lechmere station to connect Somerville and Medford, was first promised by the state in 1990 and broke ground in 2012, according to a Boston Globe article on Dec. 5, 2013. According to the proposed map, the project will connect Union Square, Washington Street, Gilman Square, Lowell Street, Ball Square and College Ave. In a presentation to the MBTA’s Fiscal Management and Control Board (FMCB) on Aug. 24, MBTA General Manager Frank DePaola stated that costs for the next phase of the project would substantially exceed the original figure of $1.992 billion, likely reaching between $2.7 and $3 billion.

According to the presentation, the higher-than-expected cost is attributable in part to preliminary project estimates that used 2010 standard transit industry costs — when mid-recession construction was relatively cheap — as its basis. Current prices are much higher, which would not have been predicted accurately in earlier stages of the project.

Following this news, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT ) Secretary and Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Pollack raised concerns that the GLX project might in fact be canceled, according to a Boston Globe article on Aug. 24. Pollack explained that the state is looking into all possible options for the project’s future.

“Everything is on the table, and everything includes canceling the project,” Pollack said in the article. “But that’s not where we want to go.”

The MBTA is also considering ways to cut excessive costs. The Aug. 24 presentation offers four options: “reduce project scope to reduce project cost,” “find additional sources of funds (other than state bonds),” “change procurement method” and “cancel the project.” MBTA officials also welcomed ideas from the public through Sept. 9, but have not published any of these suggestions as of press time.

Amid concerns that the City of

Somerville would not be benefitting from the extended Green Line after all, Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone met with the Board of Aldermen on Aug. 27, according to a Somerville Times article on Sept. 2.

Alderman-at-Large Jack Connolly, who attended this meeting, stated that

key players MBTA Medford, Somerville, Cambridge White Skanska Kiewit Joint Venture (WSK) - Construction manager/ general contractor

Federal funding Full Funding grant for the FTA (Federal Transit Administration)

$996 Million

The cost original estimate:

$1.992 billion current estimate:

$2.7 - 3.0 billion Curtatone remains optimistic about the project’s completion. “[Mayor Curtatone’s] advice to all of us — and I’ve talked to him a couple of times since — is that we fully expect the Green Line to be built,” Connolly said.

Curtatone also emphasized that cancellation is not a reasonable option at this time, given how far along the project is already. “[Pollack] stated to the Control Board that cancellation is not realistic because we lose the economic opportunity and the environmental benefits,” Curtatone said at the meeting. “I will state to the public not to panic. I understand there is some concern — there’s never good timing for this sort of news. It’s not a question of if we do it, it’s how are we going to get this done?”

Connolly explained that some of the project’s specifics will likely be changed

in an effort to cut costs.

“The plans originally called for these absolutely spectacular, beautiful spaceship-like stations that were all enclosed in glass … Well, we may get something a little more…pedestrian,” Connolly said.

“Instead of something that’s futuristic in some of the design, they may be scaled back a little bit. But that’s not a major problem for any of us. The most important thing is that the community be served by the light rail vehicles.”

In an open letter on the Green Line Extension project’s official website, DePaola confirmed the likelihood that station designs will be scaled back.

“Some of the changes to the project concept that are currently being contemplated include streamlining several of the proposed stations in order to reduce their cost,” DePaola wrote.

Despite general optimism in the project’s future and confidence that Green Line stations — whatever their form — will be built, the timeline remains uncertain. The GLX project has already seen considerable delays, and a budgetary reevaluation can only set construction back further, according to a Boston.com article on July 10, 2010.

Connolly, though certain that construction will occur in some capacity, is unsure how the project’s overhaul will affect its trajectory.

“That’s the thing that’s most uncertain,” Connolly said. “If the contracts have to go and be re-bid, and then they come back a lot different…it may be put off for a little while. I can’t say whether it would be six months or a year, but we’re always concerned … We’ll be watching that stuff very, very carefully.”

At the meeting with Curtatone, Connolly raised concerns about the projected completion date of the Union Square station, an estimate which may be pushed back from 2017 to 2018.

According to the Somerville Times referenced above, the mayor acknowledged this possibility, but also indicated that the delay is not necessarily attributable to the budgetary problems. The MBTA has not yet published a revised timeline at this point.

There is some good news, however, Connolly explained: much of the preparatory work for the Green Line Extension Project has already been done.

“There’s already been close to half a billion dollars spent…in getting the rail bed prepared,” Connolly said. “Where the new Tufts building is…has been completely reconstructed so that the load for two additional rail beds can be constructed on top of it, so we’ve already got that done. The same thing’s see MBTA , page 4

M

y descent into girlhood was a confusing process.

At 11, I realized that I had budding breasts and tried to rub them off. My parents watched, cackling at the sight of me rolling on the ground. They didn’t see the severity of what this meant, but I knew. It would seal my fate as a girl, and at 11, I already knew girls were the worst.

I wouldn’t be able to run around naked. Since I wasn’t a boy, I couldn’t be like a boy. Thus, I couldn’t do all the things I loved to do — like run and yell and create ruckus. It meant that I had to pay attention to boys, not as one of them, but as an outsider.

I felt a deep sense of loss as I realized all of these things and took steps to remove the evidence. That’s not to say that I was a tomboy. I liked dresses and paint on my face (that’s makeup) and all of the other conventionally feminine things. But I also liked fluidity, and I did NOT like the idea that the universe had chosen things for me.

By 12, I was fully aware of girlhood and completely wrapped up in it. I took a shopping trip to the mall with my mother and ransacked the American Eagle store in search of shirts that thoroughly hid the love handles my mother claimed was my inheritance. She said it so lovingly — “Those are my hips!” — while I planned never to have children for fear of passing on these dreadful things that jutted out above all low-rise jeans.

Twelve came with moments like this: once, I was lying on my bed watching television. My shirt was lifted up to expose my stomach, which was neither flat nor muscular. My dad walked by the room. He made a negative comment about my 12-year-old tummy and followed it up with this: “Don’t worry, you’re cute enough that you can get away with it.”

Pause. My dad is great. Just because someone says something that hurts doesn’t mean you stop loving them. If it did, we wouldn’t love anyone. Continue.

I sometimes imagine potential romantic interests weigh my body like a list of pros and cons, where my face makes up for my stomach and so on. I’ve played this game with myself throughout much of my adolescence (fun fun fun!).

But it transformed into other tradeoffs.

Could I get away with not shaving my legs if I could make people laugh? Each valuable trait became a bargaining chip I could use to win someone’s affection.

There is no good way to convince someone to love you. And it is challenging to fall in love with someone when all your energy is wasted on the economic manipulation of your list of characteristics. It is anxiety inducing at best.

At its worst, it’s a guaranteed way to forget that you have hopes and dreams besides feeling wanted. It has made me feel like a double agent, a manipulator and a fraud — all punctuated by the singular question: am I getting away with this?

Emma Arnesty-Good is a senior majoring in American studies. She can be reached at emma.arnesty_good@tufts.edu.

4

THE TUFTS DAILY | Features | Wednesday, October 7, 2015

tuftsdaily.com

F e at u r e s F e at u r e s

Inaccurate GLX budget estimates may delay project MBTA

continued from page 3 happening out by Union Square, where a railroad bridge was constructed for the same purposes.”

Connolly is enthusiastic about the benefits the prospective College Ave. station will provide to Jumbos.

“The Tufts community, absolutely, would really benefit from the station being opened right there on College Ave.,” he said. “That’ll bring the heart of public transportation right to the middle of our city.”

According to a 2014 GLX project update, construction on the College Ave. station is set to continue until 2019. A June 16 Tufts Now article reported that the Tufts academic building planned for the site is currently slated for completion in late 2020. The academic building, funded by a donation from the Cummings Foundation, relies on the completion of the station, according to a quote from University President Anthony Monaco in the Tufts Now article.

“Neither the Tufts building nor its amenities would be possible without the significant work the MBTA has already done on the College Avenue station,” he said.

However, in a Sept. 29 email announcement to the Tufts community, Monaco cited the projected GLX completion and

the progress on plans for the new academic building without raising concern about the MBTA’s budgeting issues.

A Field Project report from Spring 2015, titled “Making College Square: Leveraging Public Transportation for a Safer and Greener Campus,” offered recommendations on the basis of pedestrian safety and environmental improvement. From the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning (UEP) for the Offices of Sustainability and Campus Planning, the report includes many recommendations that involve improving pedestrian and bike access to the area, as well as creating a space that would encourage visitors to linger — much as they already do in Davis, Harvard and Kendall squares.

According to this report, the construction of a Green Line station in this space, which the researchers suggest be named ‘College Square,’ will provide an important first step to this process.

Rayn Riel, a Tufts UEP graduate student, was one of the researchers involved in the “Making College Square” Project. In an Aug. 26 article on PlanYourCity.net, Riel announced his support for the GLX project as an active way to encourage sustainable transportation.

“The opening of the College Ave. MBTA Station on the Tufts University Medford/Somerville Campus will create a new joint development gateway

Peter Van den Bossche via Wikimedia Commons

The Green Line Extension project will connect downtown Boston to points north from Lechmere station. on campus, and it has the potential to measurably increase sustainable transportation among members of the campus community,” Riel wrote. “Rather than decry change, we need to adapt, and we need to propose productive, practical, visionary solutions. The T and Tufts must work together to design smart extensions and expansions.”

Considering the current budgetary problems facing the GLX project, this sustainable initiative may yet be years in the making, but the MBTA and the Commonwealth agree that the time and money invested in the project thus far should not go to waste.

“So many people in the community have worked for so long to make this a reality,” Connolly said. “It’s been talked about for a long time, and…there’s so many people concerned about it. Politically, it certainly makes sense that we keep our energy level up…and make sure to stay active.”

Connolly, for his part, is optimistic about the project’s future, particularly if the community maintains its enthusiasm for it.

“We’re confident that the Green Line [Extension] will occur. Might it be exactly the way it was originally designed?”

Connolly said. “Well, okay, maybe not… but we can live with a station with a little less frills.”

Tufts Programs Abroad 2016-17 Upcoming Informational Pizza Parties

The “It’s Not Like I’m Drunk” Cocktail 2 oz. tequila 1 oz. triple sec 1/2 ounce lime juice Salt 1 too many 1 automobile 1 missed red light 1 false sense of security 1 lowered reaction time Combine ingredients. Shake.

Have another. And another.

Never underestimate ‘just a few.’

Buzzed driving is drunk driving.

Tufts in Tübingen:

Wednesday, October 7th at 6:00pm Dowling Hall, Milmore Room

Tufts in Chile:

Tuesday, October 13th at 6:00pm Dowling Hall, Milmore Room

Tufts in London:

Tuesday, October 20th at 6:00pm Dowling Hall, Milmore Room Other Upcoming Tufts Programs Abroad Events: Tufts in Oxford: Thurs., 10/22 @ 6pm in Dowling Milmore Room Tufts in Madrid/Alcalá: Wed., 10/28 @ 6pm in Dowling Milmore Room Tufts in Paris: Wed., 11/4 @ 6pm in Dowling Milmore Room Tufts in China: Mon., 11/9 @ 6pm in Olin Laminan Lounge Tufts in Ghana: Thurs., 11/12 @ 6pm in Africana Center (Capen House)

Applications due Feb. 1 (Oxford: Dec. 1) http://go.tufts.edu/studyabroad

ARTS&LIVING

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Movie Review

‘Black Mass’ shows ambition, falls short of expectations

by Jonathan Heutmaker Staff Wrtiter

Anyone who has seen Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” (1990) knows exactly what to expect when they sit down to watch a gangster film. The main character will be relatable, funny and likable one moment and cold-hearted and murderous the next.

Killings will be abrupt, even casual, and paired with clever, callous dialogue, usually accompanied by at least a few overhead shots of old-school cars breaking the emptiness of urban wastelands. “Black Mass,” released Sept. 18, does not hesitate to indulge in all of these gangster movie genre tropes that have captured the attention and imagination of moviegoers for decades.

Directed by Scott Cooper and based on Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill’s 2001 book “Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob,” “Black Mass” tells the story of real-life gangster and South Boston icon, James “Whitey” Bulger. The film capitalizes on its source material and Whitey Bulger’s unique place in Boston lore; the cast makes sure to exaggerate the Boston accents, and Bostonians may spot some familiar locations on the screen, as the entire movie was shot in and around the Boston area.

Unfortunately, the film’s unique qualities end there. The plot moves along at a good pace — it never lags, and there are some well-placed laughs here and there. But many key scenes never quite hit their mark, thanks mainly to a lack of energy in the dialogue and, in turn, the performances in general. As a result, “Black Mass” can sometimes feel more like an exercise in the gangster genre — going through the motions and hitting quotas — than a real gangster movie like “Goodfellas.”

Johnny Depp as Bulger, with thinning blonde hair and wrinkled skin, does what he does best: look nothing like himself and not much else. There is very little variation to his performance. His low, sardonic gangster voice and intimidating stares become repetitive by the film’s third act and fail to add adequate depth to the film’s more emotional scenes, leading to missed opportunities to

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Soven Bery

According to Soven

Albums that should get the Ryan Adams ‘1989’ treatment

O Warner Bros. Pictures via mctDirect

In "Black Mass," Johnny Depp does what he does best: drastically changes his appearance while putting on a decent performance. truly get into Bulger’s mind. It’s not that his performance is bad — it does have its shining moments — but, in the end, Depp’s acting is nothing viewers haven’t seen before.

Joel Edgerton is decent as corrupt FBI agent John Connolly but, again, fairly one-sided. It is Jesse Plemons, as close Bulger associate Kevin Weeks, who delivers one of the more memorable performances in “Black Mass.”Established as a strong supporting character in the very beginning of the film, Weeks unfortunately drops off the map as the plot progresses. This incomplete arc is reflective of a broader flaw in the film — an overload of characters who are never fully developed.

Indeed, the filmmakers make sure to cram in lots of familiar faces — Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard and Adam Scott (of “Parks and Recreation” (2009-2015) fame) to name a few — but, in the end, these characters all blend together. They serve to move the plot along, but, more often than not, they create confusion rather than complexity. Other gangsters enter the story seemingly for the sole purpose of providing Bulger with someone to kill, and as a result, “Black Mass” is filled with lots of scenes where suspense feels manufactured more by the soundtrack of

deep, foreboding piano and strings than by anything truly at stake in the story.

One of the most forgettable performances of the film, surprisingly, comes from recent Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch, whose turn as Billy Bulger, Whitey Bulger’s brother, was so brief that it seemed to be included more as an obligatory biographical fact than as a meaningful part of the narrative. It could be that director Cooper bit off more than he could chew with Bulger’s story, struggling to add real-life details rather than sticking to the bread and butter that gives great gangster films true substance and depth — simple plot lines stemming from complex character motivation.

Overall, “Black Mass” could be a decent pick for those already familiar with or interested in the story of Whitey Bulger or simply itching to see another gangster film. While Depp’s performance may not stand up to all the hype, it is still worth seeing for fans of the versatile actor. However, moviegoers looking for the next great, Oscar-contending gangster film should not get their hopes up — even though “Black Mass” will please anyone looking for the visual staples of the genre, it fails to do much beyond simply going through the motions.

Warner Bros. Pictures via mct Direct

“Black Mass” is full of quick character appearances, even by big-name actors like Benedict Cumberbatch, that only serve to muddy the waters.

n Sept. 21, Ryan Adams released a track-by-track cover album of Taylor Swift’s “1989” (2014) that reimagined the record through Adams’ perspective. It was — in short — incredible.

Hearing the songs in a different light was a jolting and rewarding experience as a pop fan and is a trend that I definitely hope continues.

Here are five classic albums that I think should get the cover treatment as well as which artists should do the covering.

1. Adele covering“Yeezus” (2013) by KanyeWest One is a 27-year-old critically and commercially acclaimed British singer-songwriter known for her powerful ballads. The other is a 38-year-old rapper and producer from Chicago known for his ahead-of-the-curve sound and over-the-top personality. “Yeezus” was perhaps Kanye’s most polarizing album: some fans absolutely love it, and others can’t stand it. Either way, the collection featuring “I Am A God,” “New Slaves” and “Black Skinhead” would be nowhere near Adele’s comfort zone.

That is precisely why, however, this could be so engaging. This would be pure gold from the moment Adele sings the opening lyric: “Yeezy season approaching.”

2. Michael Jackson covering “I Am…Sasha Fierce” (2008) by Beyoncé The King of Pop covering The Queen. There isn’t much else to this. I know it’s a raging debate, but, in my opinion, “I Am…Sasha Fierce” is Beyoncé’s best album and, with songs like “Single Ladies,” “Halo” and “If I Were a Boy,” it is easy to see why. Of course, this could never actually happen, but even the hypothetical is drool-worthy for pop fans. Hearing Jackson’s voice gracefully flow through the record and seeing what he could do with this modern classic would be absolutely fascinating.

3. The Weeknd covering “Thriller” (1982) by Michael Jackson We come back to Jackson for the next entry on this list. For a while, it looked like Bruno Mars would be heir to the king of pop throne and follow in MJ’s footsteps. But with “Beauty Behind the Madness” (2015), The Weeknd’s most recent album, Abel Tesfaye showed music fans why it could be him, and not Mars, who will ultimately be able to hold a candle to Michael Jackson.

Tesfaye’s dark and introspective sound would undoubtedly provide a new twist on one of the most beloved records of all time.

4. Lana Del Rey covering “Nevermind” (1991) by Nirvana This almost seems like a match made in heaven. The 30-year-old crooner is a well-documented fan of Kurt Cobain, the late Nirvana front man, and his lyrics and sound combined with Rey’s distinctive voice could be incredibly and hauntingly powerful. “Nevermind” is the ’90s rock band’s distinctive album featuring iconic tracks such as “Smells like Teen Spirit,” “Come as You Are” and “Lithium.” Just hearing Lana powerfully belt out even one of those classic songs would be incredibly special for fans of both artists.

5. Bruce Springsteen covering “Greatest Hits: My Prerogative” (2004) by Britney Spears This one is just for fun. Who doesn’t want to hear The Boss seriously sing the airy pop songs “Toxic,” “I’m a Slave 4 U,” “Baby One More Time” or “Oops!…I Did it Again”? The prospects are oh-so hilarious.

Soven Bery is a first-year student who has not yet declared at major. He can be reached at soven.bery@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Living | Wednesday, October 7, 2015

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A&L

ARTS&LIVING

TV Review

‘Heroes Reborn’ wasn’t worth the wait

by Merilla Michael Assistant Arts Editor

Fans of the science-fiction series “Heroes” (2006 – 2010) were devastated when the cult favorite was canceled after an epic cliffhanger. “Heroes” followed the lives of characters all around the world who had begun to develop superhuman abilities.

The show traced their various encounters with each other and saw several characters band together on multiple occasions in order to save the world from doom.

The last season of “Heroes” ended with Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere), a Texas teenager with the ability to miraculously heal herself, jumping off the top of a ferris wheel, and getting up, completely fine, in front of dozens of bystanders and news reporters. This stunt essentially outed the existence of people with superhuman abilities to the world, and then — boom — that was the last episode of the series.

Because “Heroes” ended with loose plot lines all over the place and absolutely no closure, expectations were high and excitement was through the roof when whispers of a spinoff series became a reality. Many fans think that “Heroes” peaked in its early seasons and took a steep decline in quality in its final year on the air. So there’s no way a spinoff series could possibly be worse, right? Wrong.

“Heroes Reborn,” which premiered its first-ever episode on Sept. 24, has none of the appealing characteristics of the original series. Granted, “Heroes” wasn’t a

gage skidmore via Flickr

“Heroes Reborn” actors Masi Oka, Robbie Kay and Ryan Guzman fail to contribute meaningfully to a series that has been overhyped since it was first announced. work of art, but it was entertaining, had compelling characters and earned a cult following. If “Heroes Reborn” continues in the fashion that its premiere did, there is a slim chance it will do the same.

The premiere opens similarly to its predecessor’s, giving viewers a taste of the lives of superhumans all around the world with no explicit connection between the characters aside from their abilities. Viewers are told that, a year ago, in the Bennets’ hometown of Odessa, Texas, there was a terrorist attack at an amusement park, which was intended to kill off superhumans.

Claire is presumed dead.

First on the list of changes, people with abilities are now referred to as “Evos,” as in

“evolved,” which is something fans of the original will have to get used to. Viewers will also likely be disappointed that the entire cast of “Heroes” has been replaced in this new series, save for Claire’s father, Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman), who was one of the most unlikable characters on the show. It honestly feels like, besides Coleman’s redeeming performances, this is the cast’s first time acting and the writers’ first time writing.

The cast is comprised mainly of new faces, and since the original show had such a talented cast (Panettiere, Milo Ventimiglia and Zachary Quinto, to name a few), this is severely underwhelming.

Even in the first episode of “Heroes,” the characters were able to make an impres-

sion, good or bad, but all the characters in “Reborn” are bland and forgettable. They fall into convenient clichés, void of the unique quirks that made the original band of superhumans so much fun to watch.

The dialogue and writing is at the level of “Heroes” at its lowest point — in its final season. Hopefully it will only get better from here, because, at this point, it is flat and poorly executed by the seemingly inexperienced cast.

The main issue with “Heroes” was that it would start off with a great plot arc and, somewhere in the middle, the writers would get in over their heads.

The story would then devolve into something nonsensical and convoluted. The original series’ intriguing storyline and lack of resolution are what will bring fans of “Heroes” flocking to this spinoff series, but they shouldn’t expect much. The replacements for characters like Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka), Sylar (Quinto) and Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) are lackluster and insufficient.

The two-part season premiere just doesn’t evoke any feeling or inspire any dedication from fans. There’s no reason to watch more of “Heroes Reborn” for anyone except those optimists who hope that the premiere is just suffering from the growing pains of a new show, which is always possible. Let’s hope this is the case, because if it isn’t, “Heroes Reborn” will only be a disappointment five years in the making.

Concert Preview

Scottish folk legend Archie Fisher to play in Somerville, promoting new album

Cindy Funk via Flickr

Archie Fisher’s music is delightfully simplistic, using the absence of sound just as much as its presence to create music.

by Anjali Nair Arts Editor Unbeknownst to most local college students and non-oldie-lovers, a Scottish folk legend, Archie Fisher, will be making an

appearance in Somerville tonight (Oct. 7) at the nearby Burren. While the youth of this generation have probably never heard Fisher’s name, it turns out that he’s actually a pretty big deal across the pond. An important figure in folk music for over 50

years, Fisher’s music not only has impressive longevity, but it also has earned him a spot in the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame as well as an MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), an honor bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II herself. He is also well known in his home country as the former host of BBC Radio Scotland’s “Traveling Folk” show.

Fisher entered the Scottish music scene in 1968 with an eponymous debut and is currently touring the United States in support of his new album “A Silent Song,” released Sept. 18. His first solo album in seven years, “A Silent Song” is stark and expressive, featuring only a warm acoustic guitar and Fisher’s deep voice on most of the tracks.

The vibe of the album sets it far apart from most other contemporary music.

Even though folk bands and songwriters are still abundant in the music scene, their work is not without modern embellishment; percussive elements and string arrangements often fill any open space. Fisher’s music, on the other hand, has a far more traditional feel. The studio effects and complex instrumental layering to which new music listeners are unconsciously accustomed have no place on this release. As a result, the songs may seem rather empty and slow.

This is not as much an insult to Fisher — whose guitar playing is beautiful enough to bring a particularly sentimental listener to tears — as it is a testament to the variety of music available today.

It would take a patient music fan to sit and listen to the entirety of “A Silent Song.” However, the experience is truly

rewarding and, along the way, one realizes how powerful Fisher’s music is without flashy production enhancements. There’s a historical weight to these tunes, a palpable nostalgia that sends listeners on a trip through the Scottish moor.

The traditional tilt of “Lord of the May” travels far beyond the ’60s and almost makes Fisher sound like a Renaissance troubadour. His Scottish accent, especially pronounced in this song, increases this effect tenfold. Fisher’s guitar playing is steady and unwavering as he keeps up a consistent picking pattern. At the end of the song, the pattern veers off-rhythm, adding an ornamental coda to the piece.

“No Way to Treat a Friend” stands out as a particularly catchy number. With deft and pretty arpeggios carried out with remarkable ease, the song softly scolds characters that mistreat friends, as well as the mistreated friends themselves. It’s a simple song, but that doesn’t take away from its chipper aura. On this song, and the album in general, the distinctive fullness of Fisher’s guitar shines. Since there are no other instruments to block out string noise or slip-ups, the listener can hear every nuance the instrument produces. Still, due to Fisher’s incredible talent, the track is flawless.

Album closer “The Parting Glass,” a folky and blissful tune featuring subtle chord changes overlaid with Fisher’s resonant vocals, is another highlight. The addition of a flute is a beautiful touch that complements the guitar and voice quite poignantly.

Fisher will be performing at The Burren’s Backroom on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m.

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Wednesday, October 7, 2015 | Comics | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Comics

Late Night at the Daily Andrew: “My, he’s quite an attractive gentleman.”

Comics

by David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek

JUMBLE

Unscramble these four Jumbles, one letter to each square, to form four ordinary words.

VICLI ©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC All Rights Reserved.

GINIC NOPELL

Check out the new, free JUST JUMBLE app

SUDOKU

THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME

LURPEY

Now arrange the circled letters to form the surprise answer, as suggested by the above cartoon.

A: Level: Baking your own pumpkin spice baked goods.

Yesterday’s

Tuesday’s Solution

(Answers tomorrow) Jumbles: DODGE BRAVE AROUND INTACT Answer: The rock group was so bad that the audience left. They were — “A-BAND-DONE”

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We offer flexible hours and are conveniently located at Eaton Hall. Apply now at tufts.thecallingcenter.com classifieds policy All Tufts students must submit classifieds in person, prepaid with check, money order or exact cash only. All classifieds submitted by mail must be accompanied by a check. Classifieds are $20 per week or $4 per day with Tufts ID or $30 per week or $8 per day without. The Tufts Daily is not liable for any damages due to typographical errors or misprintings except the cost of the insertion, which is fully refundable. We reserve the right to refuse to print FOR 7, are 2015 any classifieds which contain obscenity, areRELEASE of an overly OCTOBER sexual nature or used expressly to denigrate a person or group. Questions? Email business@tuftsdaily.com.

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

ACROSS 1 Great Salt Lake component, to a chemist 5 Moved for a better view, in a way 10 Lucy’s partner 14 Fairy tale villain 15 Yoga position 16 Pair in a loaf 17 Sleeping in the great outdoors, e.g.

19 Big East or Big South org.

20 Generation 21 Org. recommending flossing 22 Like many stunts 23 Making sense 28 In the past 29 Start of a spelling rule broken by deists?

33 Flooded 36 Bring __ a substitute 37 Co-star of Burt in “The Killers” 38 Fair odds 42 Prefix with fold 43 “I get the idea!”

44 Skeptical 45 Guard 48 Korean automaker 49 Airport agent’s request 54 Adolescent sidekick 57 Indifferent response 58 “I did not need to know that” 59 Letter-shaped building part 60 Hockey punishment for the starts of the longest across answers 64 Narrated 65 “State of Affairs” star Katherine 66 Clanton foe 67 Jazz finale?

68 Schmoes 69 Leaf support DOWN 1 Ravi’s musical daughter

By Howard Barkin

2 Disco era suffix 3 Mean 4 Wing alternative 5 Flatly denied it 6 Hit __: experience delays 7 Put out on the infield 8 One at the front?

9 Butter serving 10 “Meet the Parents” actor 11 Contents of some envs.

12 Neb. neighbor 13 “Do as __ ...”

18 __-Ashbury: San Francisco section 22 Court official 24 Smidgen of spice 25 Take the top medal 26 By surprise 27 New Age musician John 30 Compete in a heat 31 At any time 32 “Nothing to it!”

33 Siesta hrs.

34 Charging cable, e.g.

10/7/15

Tuesday’s Solution Tuesday’s Puzzle Solved

©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

35 Not fer 36 Graphic novel artist 39 Isle of Mull neighbor 40 Land 41 Tide type 46 Classic Fords 47 Accelerator particle 48 Mournful tolls 50 Physical likeness

10/7/15

51 Chance to swing 52 Three-ingredient treat 53 Common dinner hr.

54 Nabisco cracker 55 Concert reed 56 About 500 pounds of cotton 60 Scholar’s deg.

61 Want-ad abbr.

62 Quick drink 63 Aye or hai

8

THE TUFTS DAILY | Opinion | Wednesday, October 7, 2015

T HE T UFTS D AILY Joe Palandrani Editor-in-Chief

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Opinion Opinion

EDITORIAL

Editorial Lancy Downs Abigail Feldman Managing Editors Sarah Zheng Executive News Editor Marianna Athanassiou News Editors Melissa Kain Reena Karasin Arin Kerstein Safiya Nanji Sophie Lehrenbaum Emma Steiner Roy Yang Isha Fahad Assistant News Editors Miranda Willson Mengqi Sun Executive Features Editor Kendall Todd Features Editors Arin Kerstein Nicole Brooks Becca Leibowitz Nina Joung Assistant Features Editors Ian James Joshua Podolsky Executive Arts Editor Anjali Nair Arts Editors Yotam Bentov Assistant Arts Editors Merilla Michael John Gallagher Ascher Kulich Yuki Zaninovich Nick Golden Erin Sifre Katie Matejcak Hannah Hoang Ty Enos Fury Sheron Natasha Khwaja

Executive Op-Ed Editor Op-Ed Editor

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Alison Kuah Executive Sports Editor Ross Dember Sports Editors Alex Schroeder Chris Warren Steven Hefter Wil Glavin Phillip Goldberg Ray-Paul Biron Josh Slavin

Renoir protests at MFA distract from serious critiques of museums Earlier this week, a group of protesters rallied outside the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston. The protesters were not gathering, however, because of an offending exhibit or speaker, but rather to express their dislike for the esteemed French impressionist painter, PierreAuguste Renoir. Among the signs brandished in the air: “God Hates Renoir” and “We’re not iconoclasts[;] Renoir just sucks at painting!”

NPR spoke yesterday with Max Geller, the organizer of the Renoir protests, who explained the rationale behind the antiRenoir rallies.

“I hate Renoir because he is the most overrated artist east, west, north and south of the river Seine,” he said. “I think in real life trees are beautiful and the human eyeball conveys emotional force.

If you took his word for it, trees would be a collection of disgusting, green squiggly lines … In real life trees are beautiful; Renoir just sucks at painting.”

When the phrase “Renoir just sucks at painting” appears to be at the cornerstone of a movement, it becomes hard to escape the sense that the whole affair is little more than an elaborate joke. Geller

Evan Sayles Executive Photo Editor Sofie Hecht Photo Administrator Caroline Ambros Picture Tufts Editor

and his cohorts seem compelled to act by little more than a quest for attention — and are perhaps trying to capitalize on the 15 minutes of fame so readily accessible thanks to the viral power of social media. While we all might get a laugh out of Geller’s antics, we should also keep in mind that although the Renoir protests might be a lark, there are plenty of real criticisms to be leveled at museums.

Earlier this summer, for example, a group of mostly Asian American students and activists led a campaign against an interactive exhibit at the MFA called “Kimono Wednesdays,” where museum-goers could try on a kimono and pose next to the 1876 painting “La Japonaise”

by Claude Monet. This sparked uproar from those who accused the exhibit of cultural appropriation. Though the MFA restructured the event — among other changes, visitors were no longer allowed to wear the kimono, only to touch it — protesters still flooded into “Kimono Wednesdays” armed with signs criticizing the MFA of objectifying and trivializing Asian culture.

According to a July 19 Boston Globe article, they were met with counter-pro-

testers — some of whom were themselves Asian American — who argued that the painting itself was meant to poke fun at “japonisme,” the 19th-century French obsession with Japan.

This is the kind of debates about museum practices that is worth having. Legacies of colonialism certainly prevail in museums, and there are also a whole host of other ways museums operate problematically — from the way their floor plans make implicit value judgments about different cultures’ artistic contributions to the way their admission prices are often remain financially inaccessible for many. These are real concerns that affect which art is available for public consumption, as well as the way we perceive the art we consume.

Let’s focus on these issues — on making museums more democratic institutions — and not on the quality of Renoir’s trees. Museums can facilitate important educational experiences for students and adults alike, and actions like the ones the anti-Renoir contingent make light of are capable of ensuring that these powerful institutions are serving the public effectively and respectfully.

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By Fury

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Wednesday, October 7, 2015 | Opinion | THE TUFTS DAILY

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9

Opinion

Op-Ed

The rhetoric problem

by Zach Shapiro With 13 months to go before the 2016 election, silly season is in full throttle. Demagogues on both sides of the aisle command significant support despite offering few — if any — nuanced policy positions.

Many have observed that some Republican candidates remain indistinguishable. The sad truth is that, with regard to foreign policy, this skeptical plurality is on to something, a truth that extends across the partisan divide.

This is the proclivity of many politicians to employ a rhetoric of values in outlining foreign policy.

As the next administration will deal with many shortcomings of the Obama Doctrine, it is imperative that American politicians stop mixing morals with foreign policy. It is blatantly dishonest about our past, diminishing our credibility abroad. It ignores the true core of a coherent, successful foreign policy: pragmatic, interest-based action.

Even to adamant exceptionalists like myself, arguing in favor of the morality of past U.S. foreign policy amounts to exhausting rhetorical gymnastics.

Shockingly, the Reagan Administration did not arm the mujahideen in Afghanistan for freedom’s sake. The

United States supported this insurgency to counter Soviet forces and influence.

Not to say that this amoral political mindset is problematic. On the contrary, it should be encouraged.

Nations do not get things done by playing nice. Strategic aims are often accomplished by brokering, manipulation, maneuvers and counter-measures. Sometimes, they are attained by masterful deception or by force.

Even if actions like drone strikes upset civilians and politicians — which they surely will — amoral rhetoric is the practical choice. It gives our adversaries less ammunition to use against us in public relations battles.

Critics are right to point out considerable ramifications of such a shift. While moral rhetoric may be outdated, specific limits to a pragmatic approach are necessary. Though difficult to be defined, certain extreme situations constitute ethical red lines. The Islamic State’s reprehensible tactics, for instance, merit action. Defeating ISIS is the clear moral choice, but it is equally practical to confront the growing terror movement before it or its followers successfully attack the United States. Confronting such actors is often both ethical and pragmatic, as failing to act sets a dangerous precedent in the eyes of those who share the Islamic State’s aspirations.

As for defining these doctrinal limits, ending the use of convenient lip service in favor of big-picture gain is much easier said than done. Rolling back positive rhetoric to praise authoritarian allies will cause short-term headaches.

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi won’t be thrilled when misguided praise stops flowing in. But U.S. support of Sisi doesn’t stem from the lie that he’s a good guy. Sisi and other repressively-inclined peers earn U.S. support via willingness to cooperate with American strategy. Besides, the other option is often much worse.

Sun Tzu did not win battles through lofty diction and poetic solidarity. The United States did not win the Cold War by calling the Soviet Union “The Evil Empire,” but by strategically and economically outflanking our adversaries.

As the United States confronts a post-Obama geopolitical reality, U.S. leaders must rid themselves of this convenient rhetorical habit. New adversaries and new types of warfare must be matched with a new foreign policy.

Zach Shapiro is a senior majoring in international relations and an Op-Ed Contributor. He can be reached at zachary. shapiro@tufts.edu.

Maria-Jose Fabre Comments from the Peanut Gallery

False checks

W

e are no longer in the 1780s. That is clear. Yet for some reason, a significant portion of American political rhetoric still functions as if we were.

Portions of the American political spectrum retain the understanding of the United States as a federalist entity. A popular interpretation of the Second Amendment and argument against gun control stands on a civilian and state check on federal power.

A state, by definition, has a monopoly of force over its citizens. Within the definition and understanding of a western state, through social contract, citizens agree to allow the state the prerogative for force — whether internationally or toward its own citizens — to establish order, retain the status quo and ensure its own legitimacy.

All of the countries I have lived in in Latin America have experienced attempts at government overthrow at some point in history — whether through an externally supported military coup or through the constant challenge of guerrilla fighters and paramilitary forces. Still, these actions are understood as illegal within the constraints of the standing system of law and government.

The question of morality is irrelevant in these nations’ codified laws. Whether the standing regime is oppressive or not, and whether an overthrow is legitimate or not, are concerns that are not addressed. The use of violence, determined legitimate or necessary by an individual or a group against the state or its intentions, is illegal.

The Second Amendment is an infringement upon this understanding of statehood.

It claims that “a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free State,” legitimizing the right to carry arms as one of the many checks on the power of the federal government over that of states. There is a normalization of the state’s codification of violent contingency measures for its own failure.

Furthermore, there is a continuation of debate under the assumption of federal abuse and excess. Policy and its public debate should focus on improving the well-being of citizens within the current regime. Holding on to this normalized perspective is counterproductive.

While the roots of the federalist mentality are clear when recognizing the origins of the United States in colonialism, they are incompatible with the current reality. The emergence of the United States as independent from Britain led to its development as a rejection of many of the tenets that had traditionally characterized the British state — for instance, its large bureaucracy and centralization of power. Yet contemporary challenges have led the United States to structurally develop antithetically while functionally retaining its original rhetoric.

Domestic affairs and policies cannot live in isolation from the international and the additional challenges, especially for a country that continues to serve the role of a hegemony. An attempt to retain legislative power and state sovereignty has been triumphed by the need for legislative national cohesion in trade, civilian rights and the retention of international dominance. The American bureaucracy has covertly grown to become one of the largest and most complex in the world with consistent federal, state and local overlap. It no longer functionally fits the federal, state-focused rhetoric of its foundation.

Maria-Jose Fabre is a senior majoring in political science. She can be reached at maria.fabre@tufts.edu.

Op-ed Policy 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. Op-Ed cartoons are also welcomed for the Campus Canvas feature. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. All material should be submitted to oped@tuftsdaily.com no later than noon on the day prior to the desired day of publication; authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions. Submissions may not be published elsewhere prior to their appearance in the Daily, including but not limited to other on- and off-campus newspapers, magazines, blogs and online news websites, as well as Facebook. Republishing of the same piece in a different source is permissible as long as the Daily is credited with originally running the article.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Wednesday, October 7, 2015

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Wednesday, October 7, 2015 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Sports

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Sports

Jumbos see stop-start results in NESCAC games

WOMEN'S SOCCER

continued from back day before, struggled to set the same pace against the impressive Hamilton defense.

“I think our movement off the ball was the best it’s been all season against Amherst [on Saturday], and we lost that Sunday,” Estus said. “That’s one big thing we’ve been working on a lot, the forward runs, and checking to the ball and creating space so we always have options and aren’t getting trapped in tight spaces. As hard as it is, it’s going to make the difference against these teams.”

The Jumbos’ game plan is to keep constant pressure on opposing teams’ defenses as they look to improve offensively to maintain the defensive synergy that has helped them so far this season.

“We focus on applying pressure, which we’ve been doing throughout the whole season, as well as attacking,” Bowers said.

“We really work on movement, different runs and passing.”

Saturday’s game against the Lord Jeffs was marked by consistent defense from the Jumbos, who owe a lot of their early success this season to Bowers. Bowers notched seven saves in the game, and her weekend efforts were recognized with NESCAC Player of the Week honors.

Bowers has been the surprise of the season for the Jumbos, who now look to her as the center of an already solid defense. Over the past three games, she has allowed just one goal and has posted an astonishing .929 save percentage in a full 270 minutes of action.

“Being the starting goalie is pretty awesome,” Bowers said. “I definitely wasn’t expecting it, but it’s been an amazing adjustment with the four defenders in front of me. They’ve helped me so much, [and] the senior leadership has helped so much.”

Junior Jess Capone scored the only Tufts goal of the day in the 27th minute of the game, marking her second game-winning goal of the year. The Jumbos managed 13 shots in the game, nine of which were on goal — demonstrative of the team’s focus on keeping pressure on their opponents’ defense.

“It was an amazing game, [and Jess Capone’s] goal was amazing,” Bowers said.

“The whole 90 minutes was intense, and you could feel it on the field. Everyone was so excited, because we knew Amherst was going to be a huge game.”

The Jumbos are now 4-5 on the season, but more importantly, they currently sit at 3-3 in NESCAC play. Tufts is looking for a potential home-field berth into the NESCAC championships later this season and will return home this weekend on Saturday, Oct. 10 against Middlebury at 1:30 p.m.

Love interweaves sports analogies, political stories in discussion REGGIE LOVE

continued from back controversy one of personal nature to the former college athlete.

Love also reiterated how Duke offered the best opportunities for him to refine his leadership skills. Walking on to the Duke basketball team his sophomore year of college, Love became the first walkon in history to captain the team. But while the basketball team was winning a national championship, Love was losing the first 22 games of his college career as a wide receiver on the Duke football team.

“When you’re losing every game, it’s hard to motivate yourself and your teammates, [so] we used to do all these things to fool ourselves,” Love said. “[We would] get together for dinner on Sunday nights, and the upperclassmen would pay, or [we would] go to someone’s hometown — those guys that [lived] close to the university. It’s really easy to work hard when you’re winning, [but] it’s amazing to be able to get people to work hard when it seems like everything is stacked against them. It’s like the campaign in 2008.”

The rest of the afternoon saw Love interweave sports analogies and political stories.

When asked what a student-ath-

lete should do following his collegiate career, Love encouraged the panelist to take advantage of his youth — the time in his life where he had the fewest commitments — to take risks and be

evan sayles / the tufts daily

Love, former NFL player and special aide to Barack Obama, speaks as part of the Tisch College Distinguished Speakers Series. courageous. He explained the tradeoff between certainty and growth by neatly inserting a line from every coach’s book

of inspirational speeches.

“I would rather have you make the wrong play at 100 percent, than the perfect play at 50 percent,” Love said. “The most valuable thing I learned as the president’s right-hand man is how much I didn’t know. In school, I tended to pivot to what I was good at, with what I could do competitively. But when you’re working for the guy running for president, you have no control over that.”

Toward the end of the roundtable discussion, the most important question of the day was posed.

“So what type of basketball player is the president?” Nicole Brooks, a senior history major and guard for the women’s basketball team asked. “I really just want to know if the president can ball.”

“Well he’s a lefty [who] likes to go right,” Love said. “There’s this play [where]…I’m going for a fade-away jumper, shoes unlaced, and he blocks my shot. That picture was up in the White House for 18 months. Every other photo was changed every few months, except for that one. When I asked someone about it, they told me the president said not to change it.”

Tufts looks to continue strong run in division championships WATER POLO

continued from back coming weeks.”

As a club team, the Jumbos do not make cuts and welcome players with all levels of exposure to the game, but they recognize that the challenging nature of the sport necessitates that the first team plays sufficient minutes even while rotating through the entire squad.

“The atmosphere around the team is one of inclusion, but also one of intense hard work,” Allen said. “Water polo is an extremely physically demanding sport — before you are able to play effectively at game speed, you already have to be in very good physical shape. There are no cuts…[but] that said, there are lines that are set in terms of player skill, and even when they have the opportunity to rotate the entire squad, as was the case this weekend, the first line always comes back in to stay sharp and fresh.”

Tufts enjoyed the advantage of being in better physical shape than the teams

it played against, but this only translated into success on fast break opportunities, where the majority of their points were scored.

“We got away with some bad habits and poor fundamentals this weekend,” Allen said. “Many of our points were scored…off simply being in better shape than our opponents.”

The team will be focused on communication and good ball movement for the upcoming Division Championship so that they will not have to rely purely on power play situations — where they outnumber their opponents in the water — to get ahead on the scoreboard.

“There’s a lot to work on, especially in terms of communication in the water,” first-year Sophie Anderson said.

“We got away with playing down to some teams this weekend — yes, even in the 13-1 win, we played down to our opponent at times. We can’t be complacent and get lazy with the ball.”

Although success in the Division

Championship tournament is not assured, the Jumbos will go into the tournament as the favorites to win.

Should they do so, they will continue on to Nationals, where the team placed fourth last year.

“The team definitely has the talent to contend [for the Div. III national title],” Allen said. “We have a good core of guys who have been playing together for a while now. We’ll see how we progress in the next four weeks. Tournaments like last weekend are good and bad — they give us the chance to improve all around but don’t offer the high level of competition from game to game that we’ll face in the later rounds of Divisions and Nationals. All those games will be tough, and we will be challenged by them. Luckily for us, we have a very deep team.”

Tufts will be back in the pool at Bowdoin on Oct. 17, taking on University of Vermont in the first game of the division tournament.

Yuan Jun Chee Thoughts of a Soccer Fan

Heroes and zeroes of the weekend

H

ere are the heroes and zeroes of the weekend. A public service announcement: it’s the international weekend coming up if you need to sleep in.

Heroes Sergio Aguero: The Argentinean striker joins an exclusive club of four other players (Alan Shearer, Andy Cole, Jermain Defoe and Dimitar Berbatov) who have scored five goals in a single Premier League game. Prior to the Newcastle game, the striker scored just once from open play in the League, but I never had any doubt that he would return to form soon. And with five goals in the space of 20 minutes against a sorry Magpies defense, he’s proven me correct. My money would be on him to end up as this season’s top scorer.

Arsene Wenger: “Crisis? What crisis?” This seemed to be the message reverberating around the Emirates Stadium after Arsenal demolished Manchester United within 20 minutes this weekend.

Manager Arsene Wenger’s team started with purpose and was duly rewarded. Arsenal was tactically astute — attacking the fullbacks — and pressuring the United midfielders into making mistakes. Wenger will face trickier games than the relatively slower United attack, but it’s one of the best starts I’ve seen Arsenal make in a while now.

Zeroes Chelsea: That seven-minute rant from manager José Mourinho seemed to highlight all that has gone wrong with Chelsea, currently in 16th and making its worst start in 37 years (the year they were relegated). Teams who manage only eight points after eight games finish 14th on average. Nothing seems to work — first the team dropped John Terry, then restored him — all this in the midst of questionable substitutions, off-form star players and lashing out at referees and their own staff. It’s a mess. Mourinho should be glad for the international break — it’s a chance for Chelsea to try and sort this out.

Louis van Gaal: The Manchester United manager completely lost it this weekend. I saw a post online explaining that United lost because its defense was “Small, Young and Blind,” when, in reality, fullback Matteo Darmian should be blamed.

United was slow out of the blocks and was definitely incapable of dealing with the pace of the Arsenal attack. They made the mistake of starting Bastian Schweinsteiger and Michael Carrick, who have a combined age of 65, when the team has already spent buckets of money on younger players.

The Northeast Teams: Throwing away a two-goal lead against West Ham, when the team’s manager had handed in his resignation the week earlier? Or leading 1-0 before being trashed by six goals? I can’t seem to tell which team, Sunderland or Newcastle, is in a worse predicament.

They are largely toothless in attack, spineless in the center and lacking leadership at the back, coupled with troubles from past recruitment and new players not settling well. The battle seems to be shaping up heading into the Tyne-Wear derby on Oct. 25. Don’t be surprised if the two teams continue to prop up the table at that stage.

Yuan Jun Chee is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached yuan.chee@tufts.edu.

pg.12 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Reggie Love speaks to student-athletes at roundtable discussion

by Alison Kuah

Executive Sports Editor

“Who’s tougher to work for: President Obama or Coach K?” Drew Madsen, junior forward for the Tufts men’s basketball team, asked Reggie Love.

Love was at Tufts last week as part of the Tisch College Distinguished Speaker Series, an event co-sponsored by the Department of Athletics and the Political Science Department.

A private roundtable discussion held prior to the event gave several student-athletes the opportunity to pose questions to Love.

Love not only served as President Barack Obama’s personal aide, or “body man,” until 2011, but also has a resume that includes a 2001 NCAA national basketball championship with Duke and short stints in the NFL. “Let me just tell you that a Bill Parcells training camp is the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Love said in response to Madsen’s question, which referenced Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of the Duke men’s basketball team.

“Working for the leader of the free world is a tough job, [but] physically it’s not that challenging. Playing at Duke is not like

Evan sayles / the tufts dauly

Reggie Love, former NFL player and special aide to Barack Obama, speaks at a “fireside chat” with Alan D. Solomont, director of Tisch College, as part of the Tisch College Distinguished Speakers Series on Wednesday, Sept. 30. playing for any type of democratic process. It’s a dictatorship.”

Love graduated from Duke as a political science and public policy major but had come into college as a hopeful pre-med student. After failing to be inspired by what he was learning in introduction to chemistry, Love went to his student advisor with the

intention of switching majors.

“I asked what can I major in [where] I [could] take the least amount of classes, [and] they said political science, public policy and sociology,” Love said.

Love’s trajectory into the White House followed a similarly unplanned route. Postgraduation, he had been idling

Women’s Soccer

at his parents’ North Carolina home, trying to make a professional football roster when he gradually realized that his hopes of becoming a professional athlete were dwindling. Shortly after, Love sent his resume to a friend at Capitol Hill and eventually got a mail room job in Obama’s Senate office.

Jumbos finish regular season undefeated Contributing Writer

Evan Sayles / tufts daily ARCHIVE

Tufts sophomore midfielder/defender Chandler Quintin charges forward with the ball on Wednesday, Sept. 9.

Tufts splits weekend games against NESCAC rivals Staff Writer

Following its win against MIT on Sept. 29, Tufts looked to carry its momentum into its two away games this weekend against NESCAC rivals No. 15 Amherst on Saturday and Hamilton on Sunday. The Jumbos emerged victorious 1-0 against the Lord Jeffs but dropped Sunday’s contest to the Continentals by the same score.

Tufts struggled to maintain

pressure against Hamilton. The game remained scoreless, however, until junior Continental Becca Rees sent a shot straight into the top right corner of the net, over the Jumbos’ defense.

“Obviously double headers are difficult,” Tufts junior midfielder Robin Estus said. “It takes a lot of energy out of you, especially on the road. We were a little slow coming out against Hamilton, [and] we couldn’t really find a rhythm. They had a free kick early in the second

see REGGIE LOVE, page 11

Water Polo

by Noah Smith

by Eddie Samuels

“I took the chance to work for an African-American senator,” Love said, noting that AfricanAmericans, already a minority in the United States, make up an even smaller percentage of the Senate.

Love credits his relatively easy transition from sport to politics to two people: Krzyzewski and his mother. “[One of Coach K’s] guys would literally go to every player, every class and make sure that guys showed up for the class,” Love said. “So everyone went to class … And my mum knew that I wanted to be a pro athlete, but she always said…’You’re not going to play.'”

When asked about the NCAA and what more the organization should be doing for its student-athletes, Love shared a personal story about his college roommate — who suffered his fourth concussion in their sophomore year. In the summer of 2015, after 10 years of prescription drug addiction to soothe the pain, his family finally sent him to rehab, according to Love. Love’s college roommate passed away this summer, making the ongoing NCAA

half, and their player ripped it into the top corner of our goal [so] no one could’ve stopped it.”

The Jumbos struggled offensively on Sunday, managing only three shots against the Continentals, who took 13 shots on the day. First-year goalkeeper Emily Bowers’ performance was strong, as she collected five saves in the loss and allowed one. The Tufts offense, which clicked against Amherst the see WOMEN'S SOCCER, page 11

Another solid weekend tournament for Tufts’ club water polo team led to a remarkable 8-0 finish to the regular season.

At Bowdoin, the team defeated St. Michael’s (13-1), University of Vermont (5-0 forfeit), Colby (14-6) and Bowdoin (10-3). The Jumbos’ uncontested dominance of the North Atlantic Division secured them the No. 1 seed at the upcoming Division Championship tournament, which will be held at Bowdoin and begins on Oct. 17.

The atmosphere of competition in the North Atlantic Division is such that in many games — particularly against lower-ranked opponents at the bottom of the division — the team can rotate all players in. This weekend was no exception, as every member of the team was able to get into the pool and acquire valuable game experience.

“Our team this year has a lot of potential,” senior quad-captain Kyle Allen said. “We have a very talented, deep team; [in fact] one of our previous captains called it the most talented squad he has ever seen at Tufts.

We’ve been able to rotate the team a lot during tournaments this year, and in previous years

[we’ve had] a lot of players who have gained a lot of game experience.”

Another reason for the Jumbos’ admirable showing was the lack of strong competition this weekend; Northeastern and Bates — the second and third seeds in the division, respectively — were notably absent.

“At some points, complacency was an issue,” Allen said.

“That’s always the biggest challenge with a club sport — we don’t have coaches, and so you need to do your best to motivate your teammates to be in the pool as much as possible.”

Lack of formal coaching doesn’t necessarily translate to lack of leadership, however. The team has strong captains at the helm: Allen, seniors Calvin Liang and Harry Wood and junior Michael Lordi.

Wood has been sidelined with an injury and has yet to take the pool thus far this season, thereby acting as a sort of de facto coach this year.

“Harry [Wood] has been a great leader for us even when not playing,” Allen said. “He sets a great example for the new guys and is always encouraging us all to do our best.

We’re looking forward to him getting back in the pool in the see WATER POLO, page 11