The Tufts Daily - October 2, 2017 by The Tufts Daily

TUFTS FOOTBALL

Tufts’ sole student from Uganda describes ‘home’ as intransient see FEATURES / PAGE 3

Despite early trouble, Jumbos bounce back to beat the Bobcats

Slow Dancer brings classic influence, modern sound to The Sinclair see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 5

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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VOLUME LXXIV, ISSUE 17

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Monday, October 2, 2017

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Tufts student voter turnout for presidential elections increases in 2016 by Natasha Mayor News Editor

From 2012 to 2016, voter turnout for Tufts students in national presidential elections increased by 12 percentage points, from 51.2 percent to 63.2 percent, according to a National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) report released today. The Tufts-specific data comes from a nationwide study of U.S. college and university student voting, encompassing more than one thousand American higher education institutions and over 9.5 million student voting records of students for each election. The data was collected and analyzed at the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education (IDHE), a division of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts. Ishara Casellas Connors, associate director at the IDHE, said that the change in voter turnout at Tufts is significant in comparison to other universities, where the average increase was around three percentage points. The voting rate for Tufts students in the 18 to 21 age bracket increased by 8.7 percent, in comparison to the national increase of 4.1

percent. Tufts’ overall student voter turnout in 2016 was well above the average among all institutions by almost 13 percentage points. The report also reveals that 86.1 percent of students registered to vote in 2016, an increase of 2 percent. The actual voting rate of those who were registered was 73.4 percent, a sizable increase from the 60.9 percent who voted in 2012. Associate Professor of Political Science Eitan Hersh hypothesized that the university’s voting rates were significantly higher than the national average due to high frequency of voting among the families in which many students were raised. “As far as I remember from a recent New York Times article, Tufts is one of the wealthier schools even in the subset of private colleges,” Hersh said. “The population is probably overwhelmingly from families who are regular voters, so these students are getting all the signals that they should be voters.” Connors explained the process of data collection, which begins with the National Student Clearinghouse acting as an intermediary to de-identify students. The final data does not reflect any personal information.

“What we’re able to do for campuses that choose to engage is to take the enrollment records that the campus is already sending to the National Student Clearinghouse and marry those with the publicly available voter file,” Connors said. Each college RUBY BELLE BOOTH / THE TUFTS DAILY and university that Tufts students register to vote on Sept. 26 at Civics Fest, an event celparticipates in the ebrating National Voter Registration Day. study receives information about its student body’s registration est in learning more about political engagerate, the voting rate of students who registered ment among students. and the overall voting rate among the study “Voting is one objective measure that we participants, according to Connors. have around political engagement, so that The national report includes information was what drove the interest to start the study,” about gender, ethnicity and majors, although she said. the findings are limited because not all schools Jen McAndrew, Tisch College’s direcprovided data in those areas. tor of communications, strategy and planConnors said NSLVE was born of an intersee VOTING, page 2

Students, faculty rally in support of a contract for part-time faculty address the rally. Lecturer Andy Klatt announced that, if an agreement is not reached soon, the lecturers’ union has scheduled a walkout for Oct. 11. Klatt, a lecturer in the Department of Romance Languages and member of the faculty’s bargaining committee, says this is due to EDDIE SAMUELS FOR THE TUFTS DAILY the university’s Part-time lecturer, Andy Klatt, greeted protestors at 200 Boston Ave. on Sept. 29. Klatt announced a walkout on Oct. 11 should a deal not be unwillingness to compromise. reached. “We’ve been tryby Kat Grellman ing to negotiate a second union contract since Staff Writer March 3, but the university has been and On Friday, Tufts Labor Coalition (TLC) led continues to be recalcitrant,” Klatt said as a march of around 25 students from the Res he addressed the rally. “Despite the imporQuad to 200 Boston Ave., where negotiations tance of part-time faculty’s relationship with are taking place between administrators and students, and despite the part-time faculty part-time lecturers to renew their collective occupying the front lines of the university’s bargaining agreement. educational mission, the institution is deterOnce outside the building, part-time mined not to see us as key components as lecturers on the bargaining committee instructional staff, but as part-time help.” took a break from the meeting to join and The students chanted, “We want educa-

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tion, not a corporation” and “Raise that percourse pay, exploitation’s not okay” as they approached 200 Boston Ave. Lindsay Sanders, a senior and member of TLC, spoke about why the rally was organized. “Our adjunct faculty work really hard, just as hard as full-time faculty, sometimes harder in some cases, and the university doesn’t recognize that in the wages that they give them, the benefits, the respect or the job security,” Sanders said. “They’ve been negotiating for a really long time, since March, and the university really hasn’t budged on really basic issues.” Tufts became the first university in the Boston area to sign a union contract with parttime adjunct faculty in 2014, a year after faculty voted to organize with Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Tufts’ initial unionization was seen as a model for other universities, and brought lecturers increased pay and more job security. Organizers and faculty, however, say that recent negotiations have reached a deadlock. TLC member Zoe Schoen said that the university feels as though it has already done enough for the adjunct faculty members by signing the first union contract three years ago. “It’s really deadlocked around this issue of pay-per-course,” Schoen, a junior, said. “Part of it is because the contract that adjuncts and the university settled on was their first union contract. It was kind of ground-breaking, but

also there’s a lot more work to be done. . . A lot of the language the administration used in this round of negotiations has pointed to the sense that they feel like they did their job three years ago and now things are good.” Schoen explained that pay equity is a major feature of the current negotiations. The 2014 collective bargaining agreement guarantees new part-time lecturers $7,300 per course. Full-time assistant professors in the School of Arts and Sciences, by comparison, earned a mean salary of $82,584 last year, according to the Tufts Fact Book. Klatt expressed a similar sentiment while speaking to the crowd. “There’s a view of the university that we should be content — more than content — because three years ago we won a decent contract for the first time ever and rose out of the debased conditions under which we previously labored,” Klatt said. “In their view, we should accept having been pushed backward for 30 years and be happy with crumbs. In their view, we should be happy to tread water after winning our first contract. We don’t share their view, and we know that you do not share their view. We have just begun to climb out of the hole in which they pushed us, and we are not about to stop now.” Elizabeth Leavell, a part-time faculty member in the English department,

NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................3 ARTS & LIVING.......................5

see ADJUNCTS, page 2

COMICS....................................... 7 OPINION.....................................8 SPORTS............................ BACK

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Monday, October 2, 2017

THE TUFTS DAILY Gil Jacobson Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL Eddie Samuels Joe Walsh Managing Editors Zachary Hertz Associate Editor Catherine Perloff Ariel Barbieri-Aghib Emily Burke Aneurin Canham-Clyne Daniel Caron Melissa Kain Anar Kansara Robert Katz Arin Kerstein Liam Knox Sophie Lehrenbaum Elie Levine Natasha Mayor Jesse Najarro Daniel Nelson Seohyun Shim Emma Steiner Hannah Uebele Juliana Furgala Simran Lala Minna Trinh Nina Joung Costa Angelakis Emma Damokosh Elie Levine Jessie Newman Sean Ong Emma Rosenthal Grace Yuh Michael Shames Fina Short Hermes Suen

Cassidy Olsen John Gallagher Alison Epstein Justin Krakoff Libby Langsner Setenay Mufti Eran Sabaner Antonio Bertolino Tommy Gillespie Jack Ronan Arman Smigielski Maria Fong Shannon Geary Lydia Ra Rebecca Tang Miranda Chavez Hannah Kahn Madeleine Schwartz Sarah Nechamkin Maddie Payne Yuan Jun Chee Liam Finnegan Phillip Goldberg Savannah Mastrangelo Brad Schussel Sam Weidner Sam Weitzman Caleb Symons Liam Knox Angelie Xiong Ray Bernoff Ben Kim Rachael Meyer Vintus Okwonko Alexis Serino Seohyun Shim Ana Sophia Acosta Olivia Ireland Rifat Ralfi Salhon Ezgi Yazici

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Tisch-college-based study analyzes college voting patterns VOTING

“No one wants a 40-year-old mom with little kids to tell them what issues they should care about,” McAndrew said. Marian Woznica (LA ’17), student outreach coordinator for Tisch College, wants to help simplify and explain the voting process to students. “What I’ve noticed is that people don’t want to admit that they don’t know how to vote,” Woznica said. “I don’t think it’s taught really well in high school. It’s just assumed that it’s something a lot of Americans do and know how to do, but it’s not that intuitive.” Hersh added that faculty members have an inherent obligation to encourage political engagement.

continued from page 1 ning, explained that JumboVote was launched in 2016 to help increase student voter registration and participation. “What you need to do is both lower the barriers to voting and increase students’ motivation to be engaged and informed and excited about being part of the political process,” McAndrew said. According to McAndrew, nearly 1,000 students registered to vote through TurboVote, an online system that JumboVote partnered with in 2016. She also noted that Tisch College wants to support and encourage student-led efforts to get their peers to the voting booth.

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papers, one of the administration people said, ‘Well, don’t meet with them so often,’” Leavell said. Patrick Collins, the executive director of public relations, remains confident that an agreement will be reached between the union and the administration. “Our part-time faculty make many important contributions to our educa-

continued from page 1 also addressed the crowd about particulars of the meeting. “At one point in our negotiations … when Carol [Wilkinson, a lecturer in the English department] was speaking about the time it takes to meet individually with students one-on-one to work on their

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BUSINESS

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tional mission, which we respect and appreciate,” Collins told the Daily in an email. “Negotiations with the SEIU are ongoing and have been characterized by a spirit of professionalism and cooperation. We are committed to continuing to bargain in good faith and remain hopeful that we will soon reach agreement with the SEIU.”

TCU Senate elects new ALBO members, assistant treasurer by Seohyun Shim

Executive Sports Editor Sports Editors

“Classrooms are not usually a place for advocacy, but they are a place to teach core civic values about the importance of participation, how we participate, how to build civic skills,” Hersh said. “All these things contribute to someone’s capacity to be a successful participant in civic discourse, so we kind of naturally have that role.” McAndrew said that, regardless of whether students are studying political science or mechanical engineering, they should be well informed of their civic rights. “Whatever our major, whatever our field of study, we all have a civic life and we’re all going to be informed and active citizens of our communities,” McAndrew said.

Stalled adjunct contract protested at Sept. 29 rally ADJUNCTS

PRODUCTION

Astrid Weng Peter Lam Allie Merolla Rifat Ralfi Salhon Belinda Xian Mary Carroll Liora Silkes Norrie Beach Caroline Bollinger Alison Epstein Madhulika Gupta Anna Hirshman Tess Jacobson Melissa Kain Sophie Lehrenbaum David Levitsky Katie Martensen Ali Mintz Jack Ronan Arielle Sigel Netai Schwartz Alexis Serino Anahita Sethi Nihaal Shah Seohyun Shim Hannah Wells Jiayu Xu Vanessa Zighelboim Deepanshu Utkarsh Rachael Meyer Alexis Serino Asli Akova Anna Hirshman Mitch Navetta Seohyun Shim Ercan Sen Sitong Echo Zhang

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The Services Committee will be composed of junior Adam Rapfogel, sophomores Maureen Kalimba and Harry Kong and first-years Izzy Ma, Rebeca Becdach, Janey Litvin and Sharif Hamidi. Donovan will serve as chair. The Outreach Committee for this year is made up of seniors Jordan Kemp and Anna Del Castillo, juniors Emma Phillips and Emily Sim, sophomores Malcolm Akinje and Kristen Moran and first-year Sarah Wiener. Zhen will chair the committee. Serving the Education Committee will be juniors Jacqueline Chen and Matthew Kennedy, sophomores Angela Sun, Issac Kim, Kevin Gleason, Shannon Lee and Finn McGarghan and first-year Mateo Gomez. Miller will serve as chair for the committee After the announcement, the Senate heard two funding appeals from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and Tufts Hillel. AIChE came to appeal ALBO’s denial of a $3,750 request for a research trip. Lee, the Diversity & Community Affairs officer and an ALBO member, explained that the ALBO recommended not to fund the event because the Treasury Procedures Manual prohibits Senate from funding academic research or activities related to academic pur-

News Editor

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate met last night in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room to elect new Allocations Board (ALBO) members and the new assistant treasurer, and to hear supplementary funding requests. This meeting was also the first full meeting that newly elected senators and trustee representatives attended. After TCU President Benya Kraus opened the meeting, the floor was opened for committees to report updates, but there were none. Then Vice President Anna Del Castillo took the floor to announce Senate committees and their members. Class of 2018 Senator Jamie Neikrie, Class of 2019 Senators Malachy Donovan and Charlie Zhen and Class of 2020 Senator Phil Miller will chair the Administration & Policy, Services, Outreach and Education committees, respectively Serving on the Administration & Policy Committee will be seniors Benya Kraus, Fatima Ajose, Nathan Foster and Seth Moreida, sophomores Michelle Delk and Leticia Rocha and first-year Grant Gebetsberger. Neikrie will chair the committee.

suits. However, AIChE appealed that it is in fact a three-day-long networking event, not a research trip, and Senate voted to provide $2,064 in funding for the organization. Next, two members of Tufts Hillel appealed ALBO’s initial recommendation to provide $510 from Hillel’s requested amount of $1,500 for future events geared towards non-first-year members. Senate tabled the appeal until Hillel provides a more specific and itemized funding request. Next, ALBO voted to at least partially grant the funding requests of the Caribbean Students Organization, Tufts Ballroom Team, Tufts Republicans, Tufts Computer Science Exchange, Tufts Black Student Union, Tufts Consulting Collective and ALLIES. The Senate took a break from hearing funding requests to elect four new ALBO members: Sharif Hamidi, Izzy Ma, Emma Phillips and Malcolm Akinje. After the body concluded its meeting, ALBO held a separate meeting to internally elect a new assistant treasurer for the board, and Hamidi was elected to fill in the position. The internal meeting was conducted by the Senate President, Vice President and the Treasurer.

EVENTS ON THE HILL: WEEK OF 10/2 MONDAY Lieutenant General Charles D. Luckey Details: Lieutenant General Charles D. Luckey, the chief of Army Reserve and Commanding General of the United States Army Reserve Command, will speak on current events and the military as part of the Tufts International Relations Program Speaker Series. When and Where: 6–7:30 p.m.; Alumnae Lounge Sponsors: Tufts International Relations Program, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy International Security Studies Program and Tufts Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services WEDNESDAY “Productive Procrastination” Details: Psychologist and educational consultant Dr. Christopher Willard will discuss how students can incorporate mindfulness into their daily routine.

When and Where: 7 p.m.; Nelson Auditorium (Anderson 112, Science and Engineering Complex) Sponsors: Department of Health Promotion and Prevention THURSDAY “Print is Not Dead” Details: Gerhard Steidl, the mastermind behind international photobook publisher Steidl, will speak about the opportunities of and drawbacks to both digital and analogue mediums and detail the process behind crafting a Steidl book. When and Where: 6 p.m.; Cohen Auditorium Sponsors: Tisch Library, Steidl, Steve Tisch, the Steve Tisch Foundation and the Richard Ehrlich Family Foundation FRIDAY & SATURDAY “Freedom’s Open Wound: Kashmir and the Future of South Asia”

Details: On the 70th anniversary of the partition of India, reflect on the current state of affairs in the Kashmir region with a film screening on Friday and a day of panel discussions with scholars and documentarians on Saturday. When and Where: Film Screening: Friday 4–6 p.m. in Tisch Library 304; Panel Discussions: Saturday 9:30 a.m.–5:15 p.m. in Cabot 7th Floor at the Fletcher School Sponsor: Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies MONDAY “Tufts Indigenous People’s Day Celebration” Details: There will be food, music, dancing, art and opportunities to get involved with Indigenous activism. When and Where: 4–7 p.m.; Res Quad Sponsor: Indigenous People’s Day at Tufts

Monday, October 2, 2017

Features

Far-flung homes: Keisha Mukasa on Ugandan identity in diaspora by Sean Ong

Features Editor

This article is part two of a three-part series centering the experiences of students who are the only ones from their home countries to be at Tufts. For most students,“home” is a food we grew up eating, a country whose culture shaped us or a house in which we find comfort. For first-year Keisha Mukasa, her experience of home is not rooted in concrete parts of a culture, like food or language, or even a specific space. Mukasa was first raised in Uganda, but then left for boarding school in the neighboring country of Kenya when she was 8, before graduating from high school in Swaziland, a country near the southern end of Africa. “For the nine years that I was going to school in Kenya, I didn’t internalize what that was doing to my identity and how I identified with myself in that space,” she said. “When I moved to Swaziland … I learnt a lot about a culture that I had never been exposed to before.” Most of the people whom Mukasa has met in her first few weeks on campus are unfamiliar with East African countries and have asked her questions about Ugandan society and culture. “If there’s anything I’ve seen, it’s that Tufts students, when they are curious about knowing something about you, it’s really at the end of the day just to know about you,” she said. “There’s no underlying reason other than just sheer curiosity.” Mukasa finds that, when she is unsure about the answers to some of these questions, it is an opportunity for her to learn more about her home and her culture. “When people ask me about [Uganda], I have this honor in having to represent it and talk about it but, at the same time, having not been there all at once for the last 19 years of my life means that I don’t have all the information,” she said. “It makes me want to learn more, but it makes learning about it really hard when I am not there.” Moving to the United States for college has also made Mukasa curious about her own culture, even as she discovers more about others. She finds herself wanting to know more about her Ugandan home, now that the physical distance is much greater. “Being this far away, in a culture that differs quite greatly, it makes me want to go back more,” she said. “It makes me want to invest more time in understanding who I am as a Ugandan, rather than coming here and feeling as though I should take on U.S. culture as my own.” In this learning process, Mukasa feels tension between wanting to represent Uganda well on campus and having had a

MIKE FENG / THE TUFTS DAILY

First-year Keisha Mukasa poses for the Tufts Daily on Oct. 1. Mukasa was first raised in Uganda, but then left for school in Kenya when she was eight, before graduating from high school in Swaziland. unique experience growing up outside of Uganda. “I always question myself — should I be holding that torch? Should I honestly be the one to answer any questions that people have about this country?” Mukasa said. “I feel like I’m obliged to have the right answers, yet the truth of the matter is that I don’t.” Mukasa still identifies as Ugandan, while she also now finds home in multiple other places. “Although I say I am Ugandan, and that’s my physical home, there is another part of me that feels like home is wrapped up in moving and in understanding that my identity is just an amalgamation of a lot of different experiences in different countries,” she said. Rather than a specific location, it is the trying of new foods, learning of a new lingo or traveling between different places that she identifies with as home. “I find comfort in bus rides, just because for the longest time, when I was going between Uganda and my school in Kenya, it was always a bus ride,” Mukasa said. “It’s like a key to a new destination, a whole new experience.” Her philosophy of being open-minded and wanting to try new things has stayed true with Mukasa in her move to Tufts. “I really want to go and see a Red Sox game,” Mukasa said. “It’s something I knew I wanted to do, not because I knew anything about baseball, or I like baseball, but because I understand that the people here like baseball. It’s a chance for me to understand what people love here and why they love it.” Despite having spent more than half of her life cultivating an open mindset to new experiences in her travels between countries, Mukasa shared that the stark differences between the United States and everywhere

else she has lived have made the transition surprisingly more challenging. “I did not think now that I’m here alone, and I’m supposed to be living here, that these things would shock me, because I thought that I’m accustomed to [moving],” she said. “I realize I’m not. I’m just as much a stranger as everybody else.” Yet the transition was not something that she has ever worried about. In a sea of new people, she has found ways to relate to others’ experiences of growing up overseas. “I’ve always assumed that wherever I go, I’ll find people like me. That has kind of been the case,” she said. “I found a lot of people who, even though they are not Ugandan, share a similar story to mine. They might be from one country, but identify with the cultures of others.” Likewise, Mukasa is able to connect with other African students over similar interests and experiences, even if they are seemingly insignificant. “I can’t say that I’m from those other [African] countries. No matter how small it is, it’s nice to have that feeling of knowing that … when I relate to somebody else from Africa, we’re connected instantly,” Mukasa said. “It’s enough to feel like that is part of a broader identity of mine than is just Ugandan.” Previously, Mukasa used to internalize her struggles with home and identity as a personal problem. Realizing that she is not the only student on this campus who has lived away from home has given her much comfort for the future. “Now more so than any time before, people go to school away from where they call home,” Mukasa said. “It took me a long time to learn that it’s okay to have to figure it out … [and] there’s some sort of beauty in the process. Now I can enjoy the process even more.”

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Henry Stevens The Weekly Chirp

Puzzling palates

ood: it keeps us alive and brings people together. As privileged college students, we enjoy a gastronomic cornucopia of daily options, and as a result it has allowed us to convert from generalist omnivores to picky specialists. A juicy piece of marinated steak fails to satisfy the progressive vegan diet, and a bean burger suffers rejection from the conservative football player unwilling to compromise his eternal desire for carnal protein. Paradoxically, our economic status and expansive range of opportunity have narrowed what we view as suitable sustenance. Birds experience the same phenomenon, only in reverse. Many species of birds occupy specific feeding guilds in the ecosystems they inhabit, but often assume a generalist diet due to food availability. Take woodpeckers, for example. As their name suggests, woodpeckers have evolved a long, thick bill and fortified cranium over thousands of years to exploit the abundance of insects burrowed in dead trees. However, the casual birder will notice that woodpeckers do not spend all their time pecking wood. In fact, many woodpeckers consume seeds and fruit as well, especially where these items are abundant like in the tropics. The black-cheeked woodpecker of Central America is a prime example of this behavior. During my research in Belize, I observed a pair of black-cheeked woodpeckers devour the seeds and pulp of wild clementines for two hours, never once stopping to poke and prod at the bark of the tree. Another tropical resident and cereal-box celebrity, the keel-billed toucan, often breaks the boundaries of its feeding guild as well. Traditionally considered a frugivore (fruit-eater), the keel-billed toucan is equipped with a massive bill which it uses to crush fruits of all sizes — but it doesn’t stop there. Most species of toucan see no issue in switching from a vegan diet to a carnivorous one, equally happy to gulp down the fresh, sweet pulp of a fig from a Ficus tree, swallow a lizard it found on the Ficus tree or devour the eggs of another bird that unfortunately decided to nest in the Ficus tree. Put simply, birds will eat that which is edible. This simplicity can be frustrating — why would birds evolve to adopt a specific feeding guild and then ignore it? Remember, it’s all about availability. When food is scarce during a period of low productivity (i.e. a drought), birds utilize their niche-specific adaptations: woodpeckers eat bugs that no other bird can access, and toucans guzzle down fruit that cannot be consumed by smaller birds. The natural world cannot focus on preference because it is always focused on survival. In other words, a bird cannot afford to be choosy if it hopes to live. With this in mind, try to broaden your diet and eat what you take. If you don’t want to do it for you, do it for the birds.

Henry Stevens is a junior majoring in biology. Henry can be reached at henry. stevens@tufts.edu. Interest in birds? Email me at tuftsornithologicalsociety@gmail.com.

THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Monday, October 2, 2017

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ARTS&LIVING

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Artist to watch: Slow Dancer

COURTESY PHOTO JARED ROSEN

Simon Okely performs as Slow Dance before Margaret Glaspy at the Sinclair on Sept. 21. His musical career grew in popularity as the lead guitarist for Oh Mercy, but the art of making his own music was instilled in him long before he officially became the solo act Slow Dancer.

by Ryan Eggers Staff Writer

When Simon Okely took the stage at The Sinclair as the opener for Margaret Glaspy on Sept. 21, he remarked that it was his first time in Boston. The Australian singer-songwriter’s roots are grounded thousands of miles away from the Massachusetts Bay, in Perth and Melbourne. His musical career grew in popularity as the lead guitarist for Oh Mercy, but the art of making his own music was instilled in him long before he officially became the solo act Slow Dancer.

“I’ve kind of always been making my own music,” Okely told the Daily. “I suppose even in [Oh Mercy] I was always ticking away at my own material. So when I had the opportunity to pursue it full-time and really dedicate myself to it, well, it brought me here.” His style as a solo artist was cultivated in his adolescence in Australia, listening to classic bands and artists that made liberal use of elements of jazz and R&B; he cites Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, The Doobie Brothers, Van Morrison and Nina Simone among his biggest influences.

Taking these elements and implementing them into his own projects takes careful and precise composition — Okely performs and records every single instrument on his records. This aspect of Slow Dancer can’t be taken lightly by anyone who listens to his “Surrender” (2014) or “In a Mood” (2017) projects. Every note within his smooth, groovy tunes feels masterfully placed; every decision Okely makes for a particular song feels like a positive addition. “I love tracking all of the instruments by myself because of the control,”

Okely said. “I think there’s something about knowing where every instrument sits in a composition and having control over that that creates a very unique sound … you can hear when somebody knows what they’re doing with every instrument, and there’s often space in the composition because of that.” And now, here in Boston, Okely took all of that to the stage in front of the packed crowd at The Sinclair. Despite being continents away, he loves the opportunity to play music in new places and was thrilled to have the chance at doing that on his current tour with Glaspy. “Just being here fills me with awe,” Okely said. “It’s a very privileged position, so I feel really humbled by the opportunity [to tour overseas]. I’ve only been on the road for a week and there’s another three to go, so I reckon by the end of it I’ll be looking forward to my own pillow, but at the moment I just feel really blessed.” As for his future? After he finishes up the tour this fall, Okely will return to Australia to play a few more scheduled shows at home. Upon wrapping up all of those performances, he plans on beginning the groundwork for a new record. His most recent project “In a Mood” dropped only a few months ago, but Okely says that his love for writing and composing music will bring him back to the studio sooner rather than later. Okely rocked The Sinclair and commanded the attention of a crowd that couldn’t help but move along to his set. He’s since embarked on a few more dates this tour, but he made sure to let the audience know that in the few short hours he was in Boston, he was quickly “falling in love.” With the path he’s been carving out for himself, it’s likely that he’ll love it even more with another show in the not-so-far future.

MOVIE REVIEW

‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ is the imperfect, amusing sequel we expected by David Meyer

Contributing Writer

“Kingsman: The Golden Circle” (2017) starts out with guns blazing, literally. Within the first two minutes of the film, the protagonist, Eggsy ( Taron Egerton), gets into a brawl, and the ensuing violent, high-octane fight and chase is one unbelievable stunt to the next. The movie follows the opening scene with a plot to match: a fast-moving chase, without much explanation or substance, but entertaining overall. The sequel to “Kingsman: The Secret Service” (2014) shares a lot of qualities with its predecessor. Director Matthew Vaughn’s style is as charismatic as it was in the original. The action is shot distinctly and artfully, turning graphic deaths into a thing of beauty. It is the perfect speed for the viewer, with the action fast enough to be realistic and interesting, yet slow enough to allow appreciation of all the vivid details. The violence is just as gruesome at times as in the first movie, although no scene

compares to the church scene in the original “Kingsman,” which has recently been hailed by The Ringer as “an unquestionably brilliant, kinetic scene; one that, without doubt, is a masterclass in fight timing and filming.” “The Golden Circle” loves referencing the first film, which is great for fans of the original, but makes first-time “Kingsman” viewers miss out on some great gags. In a recent interview with Deadline, Vaughn discussed how he did this intentionally, calling it “the familiar hug.” However, the viewer does not have to have seen the original to appreciate the continued trend of turning classic spy tropes on their heads. From Eggsy being served bourbon whiskey when he orders a martini to him actually having a stable relationship and not wanting to have sex with a woman other than his girlfriend, “The Golden Circle” makes some great revisions of James Bond film traditions. On the other hand, the movie frustratingly continues other spy tropes. Jeff Bridges unoriginally plays yet another

old person running a spy organization, bringing to mind Control from “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” (2011) and M from “Skyfall” (2012). Halle Berry plays Ginger, a behindthe-scenes agency worker hoping for her shot at glory as an agent in the field. Julianne Moore plays the weak villainess Poppy, who is underdeveloped and unthreatening. These characters are neither complex nor compelling, and they also point out one way that the sequel tried to one-up the original: casting stars up the wazoo. Add Channing Tatum, one of the hottest names in Hollywood currently, Pedro Pascal, who recently gained fame for his roles in “Game of Thrones” (2011–) and “Narcos” (2015–) and the oddly placed superstar Elton John to the three untraditional characters, and the cast has more stars than a planetarium. In some ways, these famous faces appearing at every turn is a distraction from the movie itself. Elton John seems like a one-off gag in his first appearance, but slowly and unexpectedly becomes a big part in

the film. While he gets some laughs, such as in the scene where he sings “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” (1973) and kicks butt at the same time, he is lost between playing himself and another, caricatured version of himself. During moments when he’s overused or the F-bomb is dropped unnecessarily for the 100th time, the viewer is easily pulled out of the narrative. Yet, strategically placed moments such as a brilliantly funny dinner scene, a clever drinking sequence and a surprisingly heartfelt singing of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” (1971) bring viewers back in and allow them to fall for the charm of the film, just as many did with the original. The movie does have some glaring issues when it comes to race and gender, considering that the only people of color cast as major characters in the film have a very small number of speaking lines. Also, the movie fails the see KINGSMAN, page 6

THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Living | Monday, October 2, 2017

Mina Ghobrial Thoughts from places

Outside the Campus Center

ver the past week, vendors have set up shop outside the Mayer Campus Center and sold antiques on at least two occasions. From Royal typewriters of the Kennedy era to torn-but-true leather jackets that could have been right out of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” (1987) music video, there was a definite romanticization of antiquity on display. It has become trendy to revive extinct technologies, events and fashion statements. Finding such occurrences takes minimal effort; in 2017 we deck our Instagram feeds with high quality snaps of Polaroid framed shots, we attend sock hops on Friday nights and we even print this paper, although it is entirely available online, because of the soothing vibe of a time we were told was less complicated. The goal of this column is not to serve as a historical record. However, in modern history, a ‘golden age’ has been hard to come by. Every age that we dub golden has, in fact, been merely gilded. The same machine used to transcribe edgy poetry today could have been used to send government messages during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. A slight tear in a leather jacket used to give off the ‘punk’ aesthetic could have just as easily been from a Crips and Bloods fight. The gripes maintained about the century we live in, ranging from an imminent ‘threat’ of nuclear war to uneasy tensions on the streets of our cities, are ones that transcend our own time. A century separates the point at which I will graduate from this institution and the year 1921. A remarkable amount of change has and continues to take place in that span of time. While I cannot speak to the mysteries of a future four years away, I do know that tragedies and points of contention existed 96 years ago. From the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to the seemingly endless battle over Prohibition, there were undeniable moments of sorrow, anger and fear, mixed into the Roaring Twenties. The same emotions have continued to exist in our psyche, through the Depression, another world war, a missile crisis, a race to the moon, a terrorist attack on U.S. soil and at least one upsetting election victory. Philosophically and psychologically, it is easy to connect the simpler explanation of an event to our understanding of a time we did not witness. Occam’s razor suggests that we shave off the complex assumptions we would need for a comprehensive vision of the past, and the sheer existence of truckloads of positive propaganda in the realm of our popular culture makes this particular task almost spontaneous. As we progress as a society and as a species, we unlock more mysteries of science, we produce more works of art and literature, we attempt to assuage the mistakes of generations past. Our generation is far from perfect, but through the simple act of living, we are scripting a history that the sons and daughters of the future will surely romanticize in due time.

Mina Ghobrial is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Mina can be reached at mina.ghobrial@tufts.edu, and this column can be followed on Instagram @thoughtsfromtufts.

tuftsdaily.com

Star-studded 'Kingsman' sequel doesn't shine quite like the first KINGSMAN

continued from page 5 Bechdel test hard, as there is only one scene where two women even speak, not to each other, while in the same room. Another blatant failure in the film was the inexplicable reveal of the return of a thought-to-be-dead char-

acter in the trailer for the movie. When the character showed up on screen, the theater’s audience barely registered the appearance. What would have been a pretty good twist ended up being a mind-blower in the first preview of the movie instead. “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” is highly reminiscent of the original, with

the return of most of the things you loved and some great new additions. The action is as brilliant as before, and the humor is solidly funny at times. If you’re looking for a film with real substance, look elsewhere, but if you want an entertaining way to spend two hours or so, the sequel to “The Secret Service” is a good choice.

COURTESY PHOTO FAR AWAY ENTERTAINMENT

The poster of “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” (2017), action film directed by Matthew Vaughn. The movie follows the opening scene with a plot to match: a fast-moving chase, without much explanation or substance, but entertaining overall.

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Monday, October 2, 2017 | Comics | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Comics

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Mary: “I’m prepared to die for the 15th-best college newspaper in the country.”

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SUDOKU

GARFIELD BY JIM DAVIS

NON SEQUITUR BY WILEY MILLER

Difficulty Level: Coming to grips with the fact that Karl is a dumb name.

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

Friday’s Solution

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

Listen to your body. Focus on health, fitness and vitality today and tomorrow. Balance a busy workload with time for yourself.

FOR RELEASE OCTOBER 2, 2017

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

ACROSS 1 Ophthalmic sore 5 Season-ending college football game 9 Stories spanning decades 14 __ hygiene 15 Bounce off a wall 16 Chopin piece 17 Evening show with headlines and stories 19 Flabbergast 20 Swiss convention city 21 Fist-pump cry 23 Sales force member 24 ’60s protest org. 25 Periods that may decide 5-Acrosses, briefly 27 Andean animal 29 Like perceptive hindsight 33 Promise before testimony 36 Take to court 37 Journalist Couric 38 German coal valley 39 Lifts on slopes 42 Gotten a glimpse of 43 Uncomfortably pricey 45 One collaring a perp 46 Watch displays, briefly 47 Generic pre-sunrise hour 51 Prefix for Rome’s country 52 Use a shovel 53 Pound sound 56 __ Palmas: Canary Islands city 58 “No damage done” 60 Five cents 62 Yellowish brown 64 Farm’s remote acreage 66 French sweetie 67 Inland Asian sea 68 Eve’s opposite 69 Frankfurt’s state 70 Lowdown 71 Soon, to a bard

By Brock Wilson

DOWN 1 Billy Joel creations 2 Trapped on a branch 3 Signs of boredom 4 “Is there something __?” 5 Software trial 6 Halloween mo. 7 Food for Miss Muffet 8 Needing company 9 Seattle athlete 10 Fast-cash spot, for short 11 “Money-back” assurance, perhaps 12 Carving tool 13 Ooze 18 Swear to be true 22 Bottom-row PC key 26 Dismiss with disdain 28 Insultingly small, as a payment 29 “... or else!” remark 30 Instruct 31 Even on the scoreboard 32 Strong desires

10/2/17

Saturday’s Solved Friday’sPuzzle Solution

33 Not exactly 34 Writer: Abbr. 35 Things to wash after dinner 40 __ rage: PED user’s aggression 41 Very light rain 44 Grassland 48 Netherlands airline 49 “That’s a shame” 50 Jubilant end-ofweek cry

10/2/17

53 Ohio rubber city 54 Back in style 55 Swashbuckling Errol 56 __ Ness monster 57 Steady pain 59 Corn syrup brand 61 Unconscious state 63 Ambulance destinations: Abbr. 65 Golfer’s hat

Opinion

8 tuftsdaily.com

Monday, October 2, 2017

OP-ED

In defense of critical economics by Ria Mazumdar In “Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few” (2015) Robert Reich writes that the concept of a “‘free market’ separate and distinct from government has functioned as a useful cover for those who do not want the market mechanism fully exposed … the mythology is useful precisely because it hides their power.” A September 2017 report indicated that America’s top 1 percent controls 38.6 percent of the nation’s wealth, a record high. Since the benefits of profit accrue so disproportionately, and financial mechanisms are controlled by powerful actors, it is sheer blindness to pretend that the economy operates outside of politics. A recent opinion piece stated that “criticizing economics courses for not placing enough focus on politics is like demonizing biology for not having enough emphasis on creative writing.” Reich’s statement reveals the falsity of this analogy: the writers of the Tufts Observer article correctly point out that in viewing economics as a hard science, we fail to grapple with practical consequences. In abstraction, it is possible to develop a perfect model for economic development, but in practice, we may be missing critical information regarding history or political asymmetry that could render the model useless. Therefore, in theorizing without a combined approach, we do ourselves a tremendous disservice as both liberal arts students and pre-professionals. The field of political economy emerged as an acknowledgment that the two fields are intertwined and dynamic. Such an approach is consistent with Tufts’ liberal arts philosophy and general encour-

agement of interdisciplinary coursework. Grappling with hypotheticals, ethical dilemmas and revisionist histories would not make us less prepared for the real world; it has the potential to do the opposite. Despite the conception that Tufts is overflowing with socialists, critical takes on capitalism are rare in the discipline and teaching of economics, especially with its heavy emphasis on mathematical analysis. While, as a quantitative economics major, I agree that such skills are vital, it is equally important to open up classrooms to discussions of alternative ideologies, whether those of Friedrich Hayek or Vladimir Lenin. While the opinion piece is correct in saying that “intellectual diversity includes capitalism,” capitalism has dominated economic teachings to the point where alternatives are given cursory, oversimplified attention or none at all. Approaches such as “cultural economics,” or “critical economics,” which exist at some universities, acknowledge the multiplicity of economic ideologies. The Rethinking Economics Network of the U.K. wrote in the Guardian that they desired a pluralist curriculum with “contrasting economic frameworks (feminist, Austrian, post-Keynesian) to give them a range of ways to think about the economy and allow them to judge which are best at answering different economic questions.” Only by closely examining all options, and engaging with the discipline of economics at a philosophical and political level, can one gain the skills to meaningfully defend or criticize a given ideology. A defense of capitalism ought to stem from an independent understanding of it in relation to other theories, not simply because it is entrenched in the status quo.

In the mainstream media, countries that have adopted socialist policies or have a history of communist government are usually shunned or viewed as inherently and universally oppressive. This conception plays out very clearly in my other major, international relations. Perhaps a political reading of economics and economic history could add more nuance to this idea. While introductory economics textbooks make sure to mention the woes of central planning, they rarely discuss the many socialist movements aimed to liberate nations from imperialism, the equalizing ideas of democratic socialism, the debatable morality of embargoes or the rapid medical and technological advances that have been made under certain communist regimes. Similarly, discussions regarding market efficiency are rarely juxtaposed with information regarding labor violations or quality of life. A more comprehensive mindset that treats economics as inherently political would therefore add needed complexity to multiple disciplines. The argument that ‘unorthodox’ teachings somehow escape tangible reality is a pernicious one. In “Theses on Feuerbach” (1888), Marx himself writes that “philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.” At the heart of Marxism lies the desire to continuously challenge the basic assumptions of material reality, and to unceasingly investigate alternatives just like any rigorous science would. For centuries, marginalized groups have resisted the idea that the status quo is the best alternative, the myth that profit makes life better for all, the misconception that capitalism and its accompanying injustices must be passively accepted

because it’s the best we’ve got. Even in the absence of radical revolution, such critical forces are imperative in shaping our current system into a more just world. Although empirical analysis is essential, without discussing power structures, the racism underlying economic inequality, the role of the profit motive in slavery or the structural oppression that denies equal opportunity in practice, data loses its applicability. I have taken five courses in quantitative economics, and yet it is a political science class, Marx’s Critical Legacy, that most shaped my critical thinking and ability to form independent opinions. Behavioral economics is respected in mainstream economics because psychological factors influence some basic premises of economics. It is universally accepted that we are not perfectly rational actors. Why, then, aren’t Marxist economics accepted as an interrogation of the assumption that labor is not coercive? Why can’t the economics of colonialism dig behind the shaded graphs to show how many black and brown lives have been lost throughout history in the name of profit? Classes that stifle such critical interrogation and reduce economics to a set of mathematical equations devalue the discipline and harm the depth of our understanding as students. We can and should learn about neoclassical economics, but our intellectual and practical scope deserves more enrichment. Ria Mazumdar is a junior majoring in quantitative economics and international relations. Ria can be reached at Ria. Mazumdar@tufts.edu.

SEOHYUN SHIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

Braker Hall, home to the economics department, is pictured at night on Oct. 1.

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. ADVERTISING All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Board and Executive Business Director.

Opinion

Monday, October 2, 2017 | Opinion | THE TUFTS DAILY

OP-ED

How to care about people and also major in economics by Ara Kharazian

Recently, I read an article in the Tufts Observer that recommended the economics department teach theories other than capitalism in order to prepare students to confront the racism, sexism and inequality in our society. The article cites capitalism as the cause of these problems and argues that the economics department is complicit in their existence because it teaches the theory. I was surprised to read the article because it did not reflect my experience with the economics department, which has taught me to be critical of a totally free market and has prepared me to actively engage in politics and social issues. In Econometrics, which all economics majors must take, we studied racial disparities in income and education. We looked at the unfair wage gap between men and women. My final paper recommended options to strengthen Pell Grant funding for low-income students. In the State and Local Public Finance class, we looked at how racist zoning laws have helped the rich and white residents of a commu-

nity at the expense of everyone else. In Environmental Economics, we studied how the free market consistently fails to preserve important environmental services, disproportionately affecting low-income people of color. In each of these courses, our assignments asked us to design government policies and programs to correct free market failures. This type of analysis is typical in many electives and some core courses offered by the department. While economics may seem to focus on maximizing profit, the real goal is to maximize social welfare and to zero out profits. In our models, we prefer an equitable distribution of resources over the most profitable one. To ensure maximum social welfare, economists routinely recommend government intervention as a policy prescription, because they know the free market isn’t perfect. After all, the point of studying economics is to learn to identify and respond to free market failures. If the free market worked perfectly, the economics department wouldn’t exist. But while I was disappointed in the Observer’s coverage, I was also disappointed in a small number of my

classmates who responded to the article’s concerns about capitalism and its inequalities with something along the lines of “Well, that’s just how the world works. Deal with it.” This kind of resignation is lazy and unproductive, and it’s a dereliction of our duty as economics students: to think critically about the way our economy works and to try to make it work better for everyone. There’s this notion out there that economists put “profit over people,” or that capitalism is based on helping the rich at the expense of the poor. That’s not true in modern economics, and it’s certainly not true of my experience at Tufts. My hope is that any students who hold these views will take a few classes in the economics department, pursue the major or graduate studies and use their knowledge and experience to change our economy and our politics for the better. At least, that’s what I’m hoping to do.

Ara Kharazian is a junior majoring in economics and a Teaching Assistant (TA) for the economics department. Ara can be reached at Ara.Kharazian@tufts.edu.

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CORRECTION “CAFE discussion group supports interfaith identity, social change at Tufts,” which ran in print on Sept. 25, mentioned Chong Buddhism as one of the religious traditions that Ann-Marie Lee identifies with, when Lee actually identifies with Chan Buddhism. The article has been updated online to reflect this change. The Daily regrets this error.

Nesi Altaras Looking Out

Europe moved on

ver since the Brexit referendum that ended with a small leave victory, the British public and media have been talking about the monumental decision: Brexit, Brexit, Brexit. There are so many moving parts to talk about: the opinions of different parties and politicians, the disagreements in the Tory cabinet on the extent of Brexit and how it would affect practical life for the millions of Europeans in the UK and millions of Brits in the EU. The discussions range from pet passports allowing freedom of movement for dogs to nuclear waste removal. There is truly a lot to discuss. The mass media hysteria has so far only stopped for the tragedy of Grenfell Tower, where a large public housing structure fire led to multiple deaths due to a lack of government accountability. Even during the general election, which Prime Minister Theresa May called to strengthen her hand in Brexit negotiations, the media acted as if the election was just about Brexit. These days, the British media is still discussing soft or hard Brexit, the Irish border, transitional periods and the Norway model. This is not unexpected: Brexit is perhaps the single most consequential event to occur in Britain in decades. However, the other side of the negotiating table, the European Union, has moved on. The EU still mentions Brexit, and its negotiator, Michel Barnier, is of course singularly focused on the subject to make sure that all EU interests are taken care of. But European leaders have started talking about other EU issues, operating under the assumption that Britain is gone. The EU agenda has moved on from the Brexit referendum of 2015 and has shifted to deeper integration. There are discussions of a multi-speed Europe headed by French President Emmanuel Macron, increased digital cooperation headed by the Council of EU President Estonia, plans to make a stronger EU presidency by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, a stronger combined security and foreign policy apparatus, on the list goes. Brexit is all but a small bullet point toward the end, taken care of by Barnier and not receiving attention from the high-up leaders of the EU structure. This agenda change could annoy some in Britain, who view themselves as critically important to Europe, but the fact is that has never been the case. Britain has been the single biggest obstacle to deeper integration. As one of the largest EU countries and economies, it held considerable sway and was always opposed to stronger ties, making “federation” an unspeakable word for the EU. Britain, though in the EU, never joined the currency union of the euro or the visa union of the Schengen Area, nor did it ever want to go further with its bonds to the continent. So many staunch Europeanists saw this as an opportunity: a strong impediment was gone and now the EU could be stronger and closer. If Britain does decide after all on an unending transition period, soft Brexit or the Norway model, it can expect to be forced to adjust to the status quo of a further integrated EU, where “federation” is not taboo.

Nesi Altaras is a junior majoring in international relations and economics. Nesi can be reached at nesi.altaras@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY | Opinion | Monday, October 2, 2017

CARTOON

SHANNON GEARY

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Sports

Monday, October 2, 2017 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

Phillip Goldberg Bird's Eye View

Pinching player millions, owners earning billions

’d like to disabuse the notion that athletes are overpaid. Sports is an absurdly profitable industry. Last year, no NFL team’s operating profit was less than $26 million, and the average team earned $91 million. Of the 50 most valuable sports franchises in the world this year, not one is worth less than $1.75 billion. Next to those towering evaluations, does the five-year $201 million contract NBA superstar Stephen Curry recently signed look so exorbitant? Absolutely not. Keep in mind, you as the fan are determining what athletes are worth by how much you are willing to pay for tickets and merchandise. In the NBA, the players receive 51 percent of basketball related income from the league. That means when you fork out $100 to see a Celtics game, just over half of that goes to the players. I assume you’re attending to watch the players, and not for the overpriced concessions, so it makes sense that their paychecks are commensurate with how much money the team collects from their labor. Those are the numbers that the media highlights. What we don’t see are the players who put everything they have into their careers but aren’t the very best. There are 53 players on an NFL roster and 32 teams. That means if you’re not one of the nearly 1,700 best football players in the world, your prospects of making money are slim. What other profession caps the number of practitioners so strictly? Even if you make it into your chosen sport’s professional league, there is huge disparity between what players on the same tier as Stephen Curry and LeBron James ($33.3 million annually) make and what journeyman players like the Cavaliers’ JaCorey Williams ($815,615) and the Warriors’ Jason Thompson ($945,126) make. No one should lose any sleep over pay disparity in the NBA. Even the lowest paid players are making close to a million dollars. Keep in mind, though, that athletes reach their peak earning potential early, think mid- to late-20s, and for a much shorter period than the rest of us. The average NFL player plays for just over three years and earns about $4 million after taxes over their career. It’s difficult for players to find health insurance after they retire from sports and the injury costs pile up later in life. A total knee replacement without insurance can run up to $35,000. Throw in brain trauma, foot and hip surgery and sport-specific injuries, and post-career medical costs can become quite a bill. Finally, almost no professional athlete is prepared for the sums thrust upon them. Most of these players are in their early- to mid-20s, and in the MLB it is estimated that only 4.3 percent of players hold college degrees. These overnight millionaires have limited education, and once their playing careers are over they have to stretch what they’ve earned for the rest of their lives. Considering the hell that players put their bodies through daily, the level of competition in their fields and the revenue they generate for the leagues, I’d say rank-and-file players are underpaid, if anything. Phillip Goldberg is a sports editor at The Tufts Daily. He is a senior majoring in political science and can be reached at phillip.goldberg@tufts.edu.

12 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Monday, October 2, 2017

Football back on track with win at Bates

EVAN SAYLES / THE TUFTS DAILY

Sophomore running back Andrew Sanders makes a touchdown run in the season opener against the Hamilton Continentals on Sept. 16. by Phillip Goldberg Sports Editor

After a gut-wrenching overtime loss last week to Wesleyan (2–1), Tufts (2–1) felt the pressure to come away with a win at Bates this weekend. Despite giving up an early field goal, the Jumbos scored four unanswered touchdowns on their way to a 37–17 routing of the Bobcats. “I thought we were sloppy at times,” coach Jay Civetti said. “[I’m] happy with the response for a win but I don’t want to be satisfied with the overall play of the team I thought was lacking at times … It just has to do with applying the fundamentals that we spend so much time teaching and consistently seeing them over the course of however many snaps of the game it is.” By the start of the fourth quarter, Tufts led 30–17. Despite the two-possession lead, the Jumbos exhibited no inclination to simply run out the clock. Having made it to the Bates’ 27-yard line when play was blown dead at the end of the third quarter, Tufts picked up in a third down and 7 yards to go situation. Under pressure, junior quarterback Ryan McDonald kept the play alive before throwing a jump ball to 6’4”″ junior wide receiver Daniel de Leon. De Leon outjumped his defender and came down with the 27-yard touchdown pass. Up 20 points, 37–17, the Tufts defense held strong and did not allow any more points for the rest of the contest. Although Tufts and Bates finished with similar yardage statistics — 385 yards of total offense for Tufts versus 312 for Bates — the Bates offense struggled to move the ball all game. Bates scored a touchdown in the third quarter when junior running back Kyle Flaherty converted a 2-yard dive at the goal line with 2:29 remaining. That touchdown was basically a gift from the Bates defensive and special teams units, though. Bates drove from its own 35-yard line to the Tufts goal line earlier in the period, but Tufts forced a turnover on downs. The Bobcats defense kept the Jumbos backed up against

their end zone, forcing a punt, which was returned to the Tufts 24-yard line. It was that drive, beginning nearly in the red zone, that ended with Flaherty’s touchdown. Nearly all of the game’s scoring came in the first half, especially the second quarter, as Tufts went on a 23–7 rampage. First-year kicker Matthew Alswanger converted his second field goal of the season from 22 yards out with 2:43 remaining in the period. His kick brought the score to 30–10, where it stayed until halftime. Bates’ first touchdown of the game came at the 7:35 mark in the second quarter when Tufts blitzed. First-year quarterback Brendan Costa narrowly escaped being taken down in the backfield near Bates’ 30-yard line. He found a hole through the left side of his offensive line and emerged somehow ahead of Tufts’ secondary. A 70-yard race ensued with Costa sprinting all but untouched into the end zone. Costa’s touchdown run was redemption for the previous drive. Sophomore linebacker Tylor Scales jumped Costa’s pass on third-and-9 and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown. “It was actually crazy because me and the other linebacker out there, [sophomore] Greg Holt, we lined up, we guessed the route,” Scales said. “As soon as the play started, since we knew what the route was going to be, went ahead and ran the route for the receiver and the quarterback ended up throwing it right to me. That being my first interception and first pick-six ever in my career, that was phenomenal.” Junior wide receiver Jack Dolan caught three touchdowns, tying the Tufts record for single-game touchdowns. The record was most recently set by Greg Lanzillo (LA ’14) in a game against Colby in 2014. Dolan scored his third touchdown of the day at the nine-minute mark in the second quarter. After Tufts was bailed out by a pass interference call, the team lined up on its own 41-yard line. The Jumbos faked a run play and the Bobcats bit hard, leaving Dolan complete-

ly uncovered over the middle for a short pass that he turned into a 59-yard touchdown. The game started to escape Bates, as Tufts led 21–3. Just four minutes earlier the Jumbos were on the Bobcats’ 29-yard line. On a similar play to Dolan’s third touchdown catch, Tufts faked run and Bates left Dolan open over the middle. Dolan went untouched on his second touchdown catch of the day, another short catch with nobody between him and the end zone. Dolan’s first touchdown of the day came with 8:21 remaining in the first quarter. Quick and a tough runner after the catch, Tufts often schemes to get Dolan open in space. This time, on third-and-5 from Bobcats’ 11-yard line, the Jumbos lined Dolan up on the right side with two other receivers flanking him. A quick pass to Dolan and excellent blocking from his pass-catching peers resulted in yet another easy touchdown catch and run for Dolan. Tufts started the day off sloppily, with a lost fumble on its first play of the game. Though Bates picked up from the Tufts’ 37-yard line, the Tufts defense was able to hold Bates to just a field goal. Tufts’ usual running back junior Dominic Borelli was out with an injury so sophomore Andrew Sanders and first-year Mike Pedrini picked up the slack. “I thought Mike did a good job,” Civetti said. “Andrew Sanders started the game for us and he didn’t get a ton of touches because we were throwing the ball on the perimeter quite a bit. But I thought Michael came in at the end and for a freshman to step in there and play versus a gritty physical defense, I thought Michael did a good job.” Dolan is now in a three-way tie for the most receiving touchdowns in the NESCAC with four touchdowns through three games. The junior posted over 100 yards receiving (118) for the first time this season with his longest catch of the day coming on his final touchdown. McDonald passed for 245 yards and added 81 yards on the ground to go with his four

touchdown passes. He was named NESCAC Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts. NESCAC Special Teams Player of the Week, junior defensive back and punter Alex LaPiana helped pin Bates deep within its own territory with five punts for an average of 43.2 yards. His long was a 58-yard punt and two of his kicks were inside the 20-yard line. “It’s new for me, I didn’t punt in high school or anything,” LaPiana said. “It’s been cool to play a new position and try and change the field for our team. I think we were just kicking around one day and coach [Scott] Rynne, who helps out with the punters, saw me and he said, ‘You know, we should see what you can do.’ That was last season, so I was a backup last season. Willie Holmquist graduated, so I came in this season and started punting.” Tufts hosts Bowdoin (0–3) on Saturday at the Ellis Oval for Tufts’ Homecoming game. Civetti is looking forward to seeing some of his former players at the game. “It probably affects me more than anybody because I get to see all our guys back,” Civetti said. “Personally, for me, I love the fact that I get a bunch of texts about guys coming back. Obviously, I’m very proud of what they’re doing in their professional lives now. I’m very thankful and grateful for the relationships I have with six graduating classes worth of guys. It’s one part of the job that nobody really talks about, how lucky you are to have these extended relationships with kids beyond when they just played for you here.” Although Bowdoin has yet to notch a win, Tufts has no intention of underestimating its opponent. Having played Williams (2–1), Middlebury (3–0) and Amherst (3–0), Bowdoin is coming off arguably the strongest portion of its schedule. “If any guys on this team look past Bowdoin I think unfortunately we’ll have a rude awakening for us on Saturday,” Civetti said. “If you put the film on, Bowdoin is a lot more athletic. They’ve done a really good job recruiting a lot of really good kids. They’re probably the best 0–3 team in the country right now that you’re going to find.”