The Tufts Daily - December 5, 2017

Page 1

TUFTS HOCKEY

Workers, students talk changes, development to Davis Square see FEATURES / PAGE 5

Current hockey team enjoys time with alumni despite loss to Williams

Polykhroma’s latest exhibition features work from 21 Tufts artists see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 6

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

THE

INDEPENDENT

STUDENT

N E W S PA P E R

OF

TUFTS

UNIVERSITY

E S T. 1 9 8 0

T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXIV, ISSUE 58

tuftsdaily.com

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Debt, financial challenges strike Schools of Arts and Sciences, and Engineering budget by Sophie Lehrenbaum News Editor

According to the Budget Overview for 2017, the shared budget of the Schools of Art and Sciences and Engineering (AS&E) must pay off $10 million in outstanding debt this year as part of its annual payment of debt and interest against a total of $161 million in outstanding debt. This has been issued to the school over time to support the construction of new buildings, such as the Collaborative Learning and Innovation Complex (CLIC) and the Science and Engineering Complex (SEC), as well as the upkeep to existing facilities. According to the Overview, the building of the CLIC and SEC in particular has increased annual debt payments by $7 million in the past three years. Patrick Collins, executive director of public relations for the university, said the current debt situation does not qualify as a deficit, which the university has not seen for at least 30 years. “There have been times when, early in a particular year or mid-year, a deficit might have been projected, but steps were taken to address it. That scenario, similar to this year, is not unprecedented,” Collins told the Daily in an email. According to Vice President for Finance and Treasurer Tom McGurty and Dean of the

School of Arts & Sciences James Glaser, the current pressure on the Arts and Sciences budget is not the result of poor planning, but rather the product of the viable assumptions made in years past not entirely playing out as expected. “There were a variety of strategies that were identified that would allow us to absorb those costs in the budget… We were unable to realize them… Basically, we were looking at growth in graduate enrollment — that did not occur,” McGurty said. Capital and Operating Budgets The university-wide budget is divided into two parts, the Overview explains, a capital budget and an operating budget. According to the Overview, the capital budget typically covers assets such as IT systems, equipment acquisition, construction and maintenance of facilities, for example, the CLIC and SEC, which often require additional loans and explain the large jump in recent debt. These types of expenditures are typically planned for several years in advance, said McGurty. While the construction cost for buildings like the CLIC and the SEC are over with the end of construction, the overhead costs of the buildings once in use increase the operating budget, McGurty said. However, there have been other unexpected changes to the operating budget, according to Glaser.

The operating budget covers “all of the revenue and expenses associated with the operations of all the schools at the university,” according to the Overview. Expenditures include supplies, equipment, travel, service contracts, utilities, maintenance and renovation costs for facilities, IT systems and equipment, according to the overview. The largest operating expense are the salaries, wages and benefits of faculty, staff and student employees. According to the Overview, student tuition and fees paid to the school makes up 73 percent of the AS&E operating revenues. This past year, not only did the tuition rate not increase as much as expected, but there was also an unanticipated decrease in the number of returning students, as much as four or five percent, Glaser estimated, which had a magnifying effect on budget strains. Glaser also pointed to union contracts which increased benefits for employees, which were not factored into initial budget calculations. “We’ve had union contracts that have happened in the past couple of years that, when we made the [initial] assessment … weren’t even a sparkle in anybody’s eye,” Glaser said. “The tuition has not gone up to the same degree that we expected it to.” McGurty added that increased costs in the financial aid awarded for Master’s programs and administrative inefficiencies also contributed to a budget burden.

Moreover, the acquisition of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) has yielded additional financial challenges for the school, although McGurty explained that the university’s projections of the costs associated with the SMFA had been accurate. Though they knew the SMFA would have a deficit in the several years following the acquisition, this year’s enrollment statistics were below what was anticipated, he said. “I think that these are sort of growing pains,” McGurty said, referring to the SMFA acquisition. “As we’ve taken on the school, there is continuously a lot of confidence that there is an ability to realize those enrollments long term. But it was primarily a problem on the enrollment side, when we just didn’t meet our targets.” Glaser also said there had been a lack of applications to the SMFA, but the university could increase its marketing of the school to increase enrollment. “If we build applications, we are confident we will build the enrollment there,” Glaser said. “The challenge is getting the word out that the museum school is under new management and that it’s going to be a fantastic place where you will get a high-quality art degree but also have access to a first-class undergraduate education… But we do have a challenge to make it work.” see BUDGET, page 2

President of Croatia advocates integration with European Union by Natasha Mayor News Editor

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovićć, President of the Republic of Croatia, spoke about her multi-dimensional approach to foreign policy in front of a full crowd at ASEAN

Auditorium on Monday night. Her talk was part of the Charles Francis Adams Lecture series. The Republic of Croatia suffered internal turmoil in the 1990s as the result of a destructive yet successful war for independence from Yugoslavia. Following a close election in

EDDIE SAMUELS / THE TUFTS DAILY

President of the Republic of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović speaks at a Charles Francis Adams Lecture, moderated by Dean of The Fletcher School James Stavridis at the ASEAN auditorium on Dec. 4.

Please recycle this newspaper

PM Showers 51 / 46

/thetuftsdaily

For breaking news, our content archive and exclusive content, visit tuftsdaily.com @tuftsdaily

tuftsdaily

tuftsdaily

January 2015, Grabar-Kitarovićć was elected as the first female head of state. James Stavridis, dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, introduced Grabar-Kitarovićć as a politician who is first and foremost a diplomat. He praised GrabarKitarovićć for her judgment, expertise and wisdom and then praised Croatia for its friendly people, natural beauty and delicious wine. Grabar-Kitarovićć’s lecture centered around southeast Europe, Croatia’s role in the EU, and the transatlantic relationship between Europe and the United States. Early in her lecture, Grabar-Kitarovićć established that she wished to use the term “Southeast Europe” to refer to area known as the Balkans. She said this is because the Balkanization has become “a global trope for dissipation, for fragmentation, for war, for instability.” Grabar-Kitarovićć said that although it is easy for a country to remain confined, it can also choose to find its niche and become a small power. In the future, she wants Croatia to help bring about peace and stability in the neighborhood of southeast Europe.

Contact Us P.O. Box 53018,  Medford, MA 02155 daily@tuftsdaily.com

“What I want for Croatia is to be a lot more assertive — to be a lot more of a leader rather than a follower,” she said. In regards to the EU, she says it has become more inward-oriented, especially with the influence of Brexit. Grabar-Kitarovićć said the consolidation of European countries is necessary and lamented that progress has been stalling. “We’re losing the hearts and the minds of the people because the people are becoming disheartened by the fact that they think that they’re not good enough,” Grabar-Kitarovićć said. “We don’t need just rhetorical assurances. What we need is complete and concrete steps of these countries to make progress on the road to EU membership.” In regard to migration, Grabar-Kitarovićć said that everyone has a right to a better life. She explained how the majority of migrants were men aged 16 to 45, meaning that helpless women and children were left behind. She said that all countries need to work together to assuage the situation and deal

NEWS............................................1 COMICS.......................................3 FEATURES.................................5

see GRABAR-KITAROVIĆ, page 2

ARTS & LIVING.......................6 OPINION.....................................9 SPORTS............................ BACK


2

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, December 5, 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 Kat Grellman Simran Lala Nina Joung Costa Angelakis Emma Damokosh Elie Levine Jessie Newman Sean Ong Emma Rosenthal Grace Yuh Michael Shames Fina Short

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 Deeksha Bathini Miranda Chavez Carrie Haynes Hannah Kahn Joseph Lim Sarah Nechamkin Madeleine Schwartz Maddie Payne Yuan Jun Chee Liam Finnegan Phillip Goldberg Savannah Mastrangelo Brad Schussel Caleb Symons Sam Weidner Sam Weitzman Liam Knox Angelie Xiong Ray Bernoff Ben Kim Rachael Meyer Vintus Okwonko Alexis Serino Seohyun Shim Ana Sophia Acosta Olivia Ireland

Executive News Editor News Editors

Assistant News Editors Executive Features Editor Features Editors

Assistant Features Editors Executive Arts Editor Arts Editors

Assistant Arts Editors Executive Opinion Editor Cartoonists

Editorialists

Executive Sports Editor Sports Editors

Investigative Editor Executive Photo Editor Staff Photographers

Executive Video Editor Staff Videographer

PRODUCTION Evan Sayles Production Director Ellah Nzikoba Executive Layout Editors Alice Yoon Betty Cao Layout Editors Connor Dale Julie Doten Kenia French Maygen Kerner Omeir Khan Clair Li Nasrin Lin Olivia Markowitz Aidan Menchaca Isabella Montoya Julie Murray Steven Schwab Seohyun Shim Emily Thompson Sebastian Torrente Astrid Weng Ezgi Yazici Astrid Weng Executive Graphics Editor Peter Lam Graphics Editors Allie Merolla Rifat Ralfi Salhon Belinda Xian Mary Carroll Executive Copy Editors Liora Silkes Norrie Beach Copy Editors Caroline Bollinger Alison Epstein Madhulika Gupta Anna Hirshman Tess Jacobson Melissa Kain David Levitsky Katie Martensen Jack Ronan Arielle Sigel Netai Schwartz 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

Executive Online Editor Executive Social Media Editors Social Media Editors

Assistant Social Media Editors

BUSINESS Rayane Haddar Executive Business Director Hannah Wells Receivables Manager

tuftsdaily.com

Construction projects, SMFA acquisition, endowment spending restrictions strain university budget BUDGET

continued from page 1 Specifically, Glaser pointed to providing easy and direct transportation, more access to food and adequate residence halls as the primary tasks that came with integrating the SMFA. Glaser explained that food options have been made more available to students by creating a café within the SMFA building itself, while the school has managed to provide residence hall options to house students in their first and second years — in fact, he mentioned that the vacancies in the residence halls were indicative of the need for efforts by the university to increase enrollment. Transportation, in Glaser’s view, is the most salient item to address with the SMFA, as the bridges en route to Storrow Drive, where the school is located, are too close to the ground for the buses to safely clear. Endowment Spending A recent change in the endowment spending policy by the Board of Trustees puts additional strain on the budget, McGurty said. The annual rate of spending from the endowment has been lowered half a percent, he said. The endowment is a fund of donated money that has strict spending regulations and accounts for eight percent of the AS&E budget, according to the Overview. Over the course of the next five years, McGurty explained, the maximum spending rate from the endowment should level off somewhere between 3.5-4.5 percent. Notably, the $452 million endowment for AS&E is lower per student than the ratios at comparable peer institutions, according to the Overview. Glaser said limiting spending from the endowment can lower costs in the long term, because it gives the endowment the potential to grow more. Glaser added that Tufts is currently administering a capital campaign that will hopefully increase the endowment’s size. The Brighter World campaign started in 2013 and launched its public phase in November; it has already raised more than $566 million in its quiet phase with a goal of reaching $1.5 billion. Addressing Budget Transparency Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senator Jamie Neikrie, a senior and chair of the Administration & Policy Committee, has the broad charge of looking at large scale projects that fall at the nexus of student life and administration. One of Neikrie’s major priorities over his past few semesters on Senate is demystifying information about the budget and much

of his committee’s efforts have culminated in today’s town hall between members of the administration and students, focused on budget transparency. “I started on TCU Senate last year, and the thing that I wanted to do was to get an itemized budget released,” Neikrie said. “We have very general budgets that say how much money each school gets… But unless you look at the tax returns and can understand the tax returns … it is pretty hard to tell where any money is going.” Neikrie further emphasized that the town hall signifies a good faith effort on the part of the university to clear up any questions and concerns that students may have. He believes that greater transparency is not only in the best interest of the student body, who would be able to see where resources are being funneled, but also a constructive move on the administrative end, as students could theoretically look at the exact distribution of university funds and financial limitations and make more reasonable financial demands on the university. “If students aren’t made aware of the fact that there is a deficit and think there is an unlimited amount of money … the heads of the departments have to have that conversation [about why the department is unable to afford certain things] without being clear with students,” Neikrie said. Neikrie lamented that there has not been as much awareness among the student body surrounding the budget deficit. Neikrie mentioned that he and TCU Vice President and senior Anna Del Castillo met with the administration several weeks ago. Neikrie said he felt the administrators were direct and clear about the budget deficit in this conversation. Still, he qualifies that it would have been better to engage in the dialogue about financial limitations earlier. “I think they just wanted to control how this narrative got out. I’m not going to say that they were being transparent… Telling people now is not as helpful as it would have been [to talk about this earlier,]” Neikrie said. Glaser, on the other hand, said that the ever-changing nature of financial circumstances and resulting administration reactions are not necessarily of pressing interest to the majority of students. “From my perspective as dean, circumstances change on a weekly, monthly basis, and we did know that there were big, big bills coming due, and we’ve tried our best to …

address them,” Glaser said. “We didn’t address them enough. We did do things to anticipate this, but … circumstances change, and we are responding to those changes, and the student body doesn’t want to know about every one of these changes.” The breadth and depth of these savings measures and how they will impact the dayto-day operations of students, staff and faculty have yet to be seen. However, the school is considering a myriad of approaches according to McGurty. In a joint statement to the Daily, McGurty and Glaser also stated that the university was postponing giving offers to non-essential new hires. “We are looking at every vacancy that becomes available and looking to consider whether or not we need to fill that right away or fill that at all,” McGurty said. “Those kinds of examinations are happening real time, and there is an opportunity to save some money there, which is obviously something we are trying to pursue.” In terms of expanding enrollment, McGurty clarified that there is no definitive decision to increase enrollment on the Medford/ Somerville campus, but explained that increasing the student-body size is something that is being studied, as the school works to gauge what the school’s capacity is and what the cost of increasing enrollment would be. However, Glaser explained that both in the realms of staff and faculty hires and student enrollment, the administration is scrutinizing the capacity and organization of the university to see what options are feasible moving forward. “You can’t [just] bring more students on board… You have to have the ability to serve them,” Glaser said. “Whether everybody is in the right position to serve them is a question, and we have to make smart decisions about who is here, and we will be making those decisions.” Still, Glaser remains confident that the school’s financial situation will be under control. “[There are] big ticket items that we’ve had to absorb into the budget, and we will absorb them into the budget, I am very confident about that,” Glaser said. “I don’t think that this is a crisis. It is a serious situation, we are taking it seriously and I am confident that we will come out the other end and be fine, but it is our responsibility to make sure that this gets fixed.”

Grabar-Kitarović discusses foreign policy, gender equality GRABAR-KITAROVIĆ

continued from page 1 with the root causes of migration, a slow but necessary process that will take decades. She predicted that number of migrants will soon rise from 16 million to 200 million. “The European Union has to step up to the plate,” she said. “We have the means but we need the courage, the leadership, vision, the foresight. We need a strategy on how to deal with the problems in our neighborhood.” Grabar-Kitarovićć said the Three Seas Initiative is an effort to reduce the difference between former Eastern Bloc countries and the rest of Europe. If interpreted as “Three Cs,” the initiative revolves around cohesion, connectivity and competitiveness, she said. The initiative aims to level the playing field by helping countries in southeast Europe to increase energy independence, transportation infrastructure and digital connectivity, according to Grabar-Kitarovićć. “Talking about the European Union today, I very much dislike the language of core versus periphery — and as I mentioned — of old versus new, east versus west,” she said. As a self-proclaimed “Transatlanticist,” Grabar-Kitarovićć talked about the value of

maintaining a strong relationship between countries. She said that since last year, Croatia has increased its defense spending by 9 percent, making its contribution high in terms of per capita numbers. Ultimately, Grabar-Kitarovićć concluded by saying small countries like Croatia can make a difference in global politics. “You can see that regardless of your size in terms of geography or population, it is actually about your will,” she said. Grabar-Kitarovićć then transitioned to a question-and-answer session led by Stavridis. Stavridis asked Grabar-Kitarovićć about Croatia’s complicated relationship with Russia, to which she replied that Russia is a strong international power and must be treated as such. She emphasized that Southeast European countries joining the EU is not a move against Russia, rather, it is just beneficial for themselves. Grabar-Kitarovićć also said there needs to be a change of mindset in regard to women holding positions of power. She lamented that jobs are heavily gendered and that many girls do not grow up thinking they hold the same value as men. “It’s not only the right thing to do in terms of justice and morality and integrity,

but it’s just an incredibly pragmatic thing to do,” Stavridis added. “When you look at the untapped productivity of women in the world today, it’s been estimated somewhere between $9 and $13 trillion.” As for Brexit, Grabar-Kitarovićć said she was uncertain that the UK would actually leave the EU. She said the negotiations would be protracted, and regardless of the outcome, the UK would remain an integral part of transatlantic relations. There was only time for a few audience questions, one of which was from a Bosnian who suggested that Grabar-Kitarovićć was supporting indicted war criminals. Grabar-Kitarovićć defended herself and said that she regretted every victim who had been affected by the war — whether they be Croat, Serb or Bosniak. She said she was not overlooking the past but also saw this as closing that chapter in the history books and an opportunity to look to the future. “I will do whatever is in my power in order to improve the relations not just between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but between the Croat and the Bosniak and the Serb nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” she said.


Tuesday, December 5, 2017 | Comics | THE TUFTS DAILY

tuftsdaily.com

Comics

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Ray: “My mouth becomes a reverse garbage chute.”

Comics

Puzzle 1 (Medium, difficulty rating 0.54)

SUDOKU

5

GARFIELD BY JIM DAVIS

9

4 7

3

7 2

2

7

3

2

6

1

1 4

3

7

7

6

6

4

2

1 4

3

7

NON SEQUITUR BY WILEY MILLER

3 1

8

2

5

Difficulty Level: Putting off your essays by pretending to enjoy an a capella

show. Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/sudoku on Tue Dec 5 00:52:06 2017 GMT. Enjoy!

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

Monday’s Solution

Sagittarius (Nov. 22–Dec. 21)

Today is a 7. Focus on short-term financial objectives. Make sure your family has what’s needed. Think outside the box. Stay in communication. Share, barter and trade. RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, December 5, 2017

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

ACROSS 1 Place that can precede the starts of 20-, 30-, 36-, 46- and 52-Across 5 Spanish red wine 10 Office fill-in 14 Yours, in Tours 15 Sign up, in Sussex 16 Jai __ 17 The Volunteer St. 18 Putting the squeeze on 20 *Company that maintains network messages 22 Bygone Toyotas 25 Lets up 29 ’60s United Nations secretary general 30 *Apple music player 33 Beauty at a ball 34 Ivan the Terrible, e.g. 35 Crime family leader 36 *Springsteen’s ensemble 40 “Mazel __!” 42 Take a chance 43 Soft leather 46 *“My stars!” 49 Counterbalance 50 Instruments for Yo-Yo Ma 51 Traveled like Huck Finn 52 *Willa Cather novel set in Nebraska 57 Arms-aroundknees swimming pool jump 60 Gillette brand 64 Curved molding 65 Written reminders 66 Worker finishing an éclair 67 Invasive plant 68 Terse summons from the boss 69 Bird that can precede the starts of 20-, 30-, 36-, 46- and 52Across DOWN 1 __ Tuesday: Mardi Gras 2 Chowed down 3 Potter pal Weasley

4 Necessary nutrients 5 Meal 6 Cross inscription 7 Baseball analyst Hershiser 8 Kid around 9 “Not to mention ... ” 10 Kilt pattern 11 Inventor Whitney 12 Superhero suffix 13 Animal that can precede the starts of 20-, 30-, 36-, 46- and 52Across 19 Employed 21 Painter Édouard 22 Long sandwich 23 Versatile vehicle, for short 24 Soil acidity measure 26 Most mournful 27 Eclectic musician Brian 28 Prince, to a king 30 Grenoble’s river 31 Liver spread 32 Heavenly body 34 Drop of sadness 37 Old cereal box no. 38 To the same extent

39 Informal “No more talk” 40 Twitch 41 Poetic tribute 44 Low grade 45 Itinerary approx. 47 Copied genetically 48 Fat-reducing procedure, briefly 49 Words ending a threat 53 Quaint lodgings 54 Bassoon kin

55 Basketball Hall of Famer Archibald 56 Grade sch. level 57 Animal that can precede the starts of 20-, 30-, 36-, 46- and 52Across 58 Single-malt datum 59 Family tree word 61 Longhorn State sch. 62 DVR button 63 Genesis craft

Monday’s Solution ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

xwordeditor@aol.com

By Kurt Krauss ©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

12/05/17

12/05/17


4

THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Tuesday, December 5, 2017

1/4

tuftsdaily.com

1/8

1/2


Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Features

5 tuftsdaily.com

Living near Tufts: No longer the tough part of town; Davis Square gentrified

Rachel Wahlert All mixed up

by Constantinos Angelakis

hat we all know is bad: NeoNazis, white supremacists, malpractice, eugenics, genocide, self-loathing, depression, malignant anything, going through grief while in college, unreturned love, foster care, addiction, third-degree burns, needs you can’t afford, lack of belonging, sobbing alone, domestic violence, the list goes on. What we don’t discuss across divides: shame, wealth distribution, gentrification, free speech, abortion, non-heterosexual relationships (romantic or not), health care, our administration, climate, repercussions and reparations, religions other than the Abrahamic faiths (and rarely Islam), colorism, power dynamics, medical leave, mental health, food systems, international affairs, internal wars, finances, guilt, beauty standards, gender, discipline, tax reform, radicalism, love, athletics, the outdoors, self-segregation, cultural centers and Greek life, expectations, student funding, silence, embarrassment, inadequacy, death, socialization, whiteness, disabilities, chosen ignorance, immigration, incarceration, school systems, philanthropy, scholarships, forgetting, repression, the list goes on. What we don’t discuss: what we need to feel comfortable in our own skin, how we are socialized, what we need from others, our own biases and contempts, what we think about right before we fall asleep. I wasn’t born with my biases, my opinions or my stubbornness. These are learned factors of my identity. I hide behind them, succumb to them and no one will notice. An easy example of this came out in tutoring. I asked my student a few years ago, “What are you doing for Thanksgiving?” Well, her parents often work on Thanksgiving. Perhaps one works in the morning and the other in the afternoon, or maybe one would work all day and the other would be home. It wasn’t that big of a holiday. She looked forward to Black Friday shopping. It was elitist of me to think that, like my family, she would sit down for a large meal and have a relaxing day. She’s older than I was at her age. Wiser. I ask her now what she’s looking forward to for her break. More general. Fewer expectations attached. “Black Friday shopping,” she said. After the break, only then did she tell me about her Thanksgiving which had been nice. Her mom had prepared the meal early in the morning before heading off to work. Numerous tempting dishes for my student and her father to enjoy without her. She was happy, and that was what mattered. It’s not that her meal was better than mine, nor that we have to compare them at all. It is important for me to recognize that I have been socialized on what holidays look like. I am fortunate to enjoy my family’s company and to see them on most holidays. That’s not the case for many folks although the media implies otherwise. I’ve learned a great deal from her over the four years we’ve worked together. Her life is much different than mine. I’m a multiracial woman; my parents from Boston and Dubuque. She’s a Guinean girl born in Massachusetts General Hospital, her parents from another continent. I constantly must face my biases, else I’ll fail the people around me and my own history.

Features Editor

In March 2016, Johnny D’s Uptown, a jazz club that often provided a platform for local and alternative musicians, closed its doors for good. According to a March 10, 2016 Boston Globe article, Johnny D’s opened in 1969 and had become a Davis Square institution in its 47 years of operation. A couple of months ago, in January 2017, Oat Shop, the Boston area’s first oatmeal-themed café, opened up just around the corner from the now-shuttered Johnny D’s, according to a Jan. 28 Daily article. Once home to a McDonald’s and a standalone Dunkin’ Donuts, the storefronts of Davis Square have since changed to accommodate different clientele. Today, the former site of McDonald’s — which closed in 2013 — is home to Meju Korean Kitchen, and Dunkin’ Donuts now shares store space with bfresh market. Much like the housing market of West Somerville, Davis Square itself has seen rising property value and changing demographics in recent years. This trend reflects a changing Somerville, which was humorously known as “Slummerville” during its tougher years, but has since undergone significant gentrification and economic development. A May 21, 2012 WBUR News article cited an influx of students and young professionals, the proximity to Boston and the MBTA extension project which brought a Red Line stop to Davis Square in 1984 as reasons for the development of Somerville. The Red Line extension especially made the location of Davis Square more accessible to Boston and surrounding communities. Despite these changes, one business that has remained in Davis Square over the years is McKinnon’s Meat Market, which opened its doors in 1965. Jimmy Kontos, the co-founder and former owner of McKinnon’s, said that when he helped open the store in 1965, Davis Square was undergoing a similar kind of boom. He also witnessed the decline of the neighborhood after a recession in the early 1970s. “I saw the ups and downs of the square,” Kontos said. “When I first opened up, the square was booming. There were a lot of department stores.” The neighborhood experienced subsequent economic decline, and many businesses closed, according to Kontos. “It was left like a ghost town,” he said. Kontos said that during his many years in Davis Square, he sought to maintain McKinnon’s as a reliable establishment. “McKinnon’s has pretty much been an icon in the square,” Kontos said. “My motto was ‘the finest quality available at the lowest possible cost.’ And it worked for me very well.” Since the time McKinnon’s was founded, only a few businesses have endured the test of time. “The bar next to me, Sligo, was there before me,” Kontos said. “The other business that might have been there — it’s changed hands several times — is the smoke shop down the middle of the square.”

ALEXIS SERINO / THE TUFTS DAILY

The storefront of grocery market bfresh is pictured in Davis on Feb. 15. Over the years that Kontos worked in Davis, he saw numerous developments that brought change in the area. “I think the subway was a big part of the square being what it is today,” he said. “It got busier, and the demographics have a lot to do with it. Between Cambridge, Harvard, Tufts, Davis Square is booming.” He pointed to rising rents as another reason for change among businesses. “To rent a place in Davis Square, you’re better off to rent in Harvard Square,” he said. “That’s the kind of money they’re asking for rents. Somerville, especially West Somerville, is on fire.” Kontos, nevertheless, sees Davis Square’s desirability and development in a positive light. He pointed to the newly opened bfresh market across the street from McKinnon’s, which some would see as competition, as an economic benefit. “To me, it’s an asset, because they cannot compete with us on meats,” he said. “So if anything, maybe it’ll bring more people in the square. Competition brings the best out of you.” While some traditional businesses have closed down, others have lived on in other ways. Sacco’s Bowl Haven opened in 1939 in Davis Square. It was founded by the Sacco family, who were at one point the proprietors of 19 candlepin bowling alleys. The Davis Square location was the last of their bowling alleys to remain open. In 2010, the Flatbread Company took over the bowling alley and added a pizza restaurant on the premises, according to a Jan. 26, 2010 Boston Globe article. Greg Norstrom, a cook for Flatbread, had moved to the area to help open the Davis Square location after having worked for Flatbread for several years. Initially, when the business was transitioning from the old Sacco’s, Norstrom saw some locals view the change with hesitance. “It was interesting, cause a lot of the older people, or the people that were kind of fitting that stereotype — you could kind of tell — a lot of them were like, ‘What is this place, you’ve changed an establishment,’ he said. “But, from what I hear, hardly anyone came in here before we moved in.”

Mishla Baz, who is a senior at Tufts and resident of Somerville, said she remembered attending birthday parties in the old Sacco’s. “When I moved here, it was a really sketchy bowling alley. I remember going there for a few birthday parties,” Baz said. “[Its customers were] just old drunk dudes. Now it’s young and hip and family-friendly.” Norstrom said that right when Flatbread had just opened in at Davis Square in 2010, its patrons were a mix of younger and older local residents. “It kind of goes on right on par with how the area has changed,” Norstrom said. “When we first opened, I felt like our clientele was kind of so-so. The kind of young family, young professional, and then the older generation, you know people that have lived in Somerville forever, since it was Slummerville.” As Davis has become more a more upscale and desirable area, Flatbread’s customers have reflected those changes, according to Norstrom. “I feel like we’ve transitioned more. A lot of tech startups have their Christmas party here, and that’s more of our clientele these days,” Norstrom said. Baz, who moved to the area about 14 years ago after her father got a job teaching at Tufts, said that she has seen numerous changes in the types of businesses in Davis as well. “I think there were more independent businesses, and [it was] maybe not as nice,” she said. “Now there’s a lot of new restaurants, new cafés.” As a resident of the neighborhood, Norstorm pointed to rising housing prices as a related phenomenon. “We keep saying it’s like a peppering effect,” he said. “Every two, three houses get renovated into $700,000 condos. Our rent has gone up like $500 since we’ve been here, which, in the grand scheme of things, compared to rest of the neighborhood, isn’t actually all that bad.” The gentrification in Davis Square brought about rapid development that people like Norstorm have accepted and adapted to while others continue to mourn. “I think both sides of the argument are valid,” Norstrom said. “A lot of people, they just don’t want change, but in many ways, change is good.”

Problematic

W

Rachel Wahlert is a senior majoring in sociology. She can be reached at Rachel. Wahlert@tufts.edu


6 tuftsdaily.com

Arts & Living

Nikki Margaretos Is this Thing on

What we talk about when we talk about music Content warning: This column mentions sexual assault. or my last column of the semester, I have to tackle a topic that is being discussed in all areas — on the hill, on the big screen, even in academia. Yes, I’m going to get in a fight with rap music and the harassing culture it perpetuates toward women. In fact, I believe that music lyrics are actually regressing in the opposite direction from the conversations happening in other areas of society. Okay, let me say that excellent rap exists and is politically engaged and thought-provoking. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the rap that can be summarized as “men obsessed with wealth, who insist that all women want to sleep with them.” Of course, I have to address our friend Chris Brown, the king of disrespect. Let’s not sugarcoat it, assaulting your girlfriend is criminal. After a few years, I guess he decided it was safe to show his face in music again and cranked out a few more records. One of my favorites is his verse on the 2014 song “Post to Be,” in which the theme is “If your chick come close to me / She ain’t going home where she [supposed] to be.” He croons at the end, “Bruh, don’t be mad about it / These chicks be for everybody.” Or how about, “Loyal” (2014), where C-Breezy brags, “Just got rich, / [I] took a broke [man’s] b*****.” Took?! His thesis is that if you aren’t loaded, your girl will leave you for a richer guy — just in more explicit terms. In Ty Dolla $ign’s “Paranoid” (2014), we see a common theme of rappers stringing along multiple women without their knowledge of the other girlfriend(s). Hey, monogamy is not for everyone. But when these “side chicks” find out about each other, they are suddenly labeled “crazy.” Sorry, I have no sympathy for his paranoia that these girls will find out he’s buying them each the same Range Rover. It’s also frustrating to see female singers involved in this toxic culture. In DJ Khalid’s “Wild Thoughts” (2017), Bryson Tiller raps, “Ayy, I heard that p**** for the taking.” Rihanna, you’re a queen, you’re not just “for the taking” by some scrub! What kind of message does this send to young girls and boys who hear this hit song a thousand times? Then consider that this kind of language is seen all over mainstream music — does it internalize this behavior in our culture? Lastly, who could forget Jason Derulo’s super hit “Talk Dirty” (2013)? I don’t know where to begin with this one… He’s talking about “knowing what these girls need,” and with a language barrier, he says he doesn’t need to understand these girls except for them to talk dirty to him. At the end of the song, there is an Asian women who says in an accent, “What? I don’t understand? [laughing]” I don’t get what’s funny. It’s pretty clear that vulgarity in music, like sex in movies, sells. But when are we going to listen to what’s not being said and start talking about it?

F

Nikki Margaretos is a senior majoring in economics. Nikki can be reached at nikoletta.margaretos@tufts.edu.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

ARTS NEWS

Polykhroma’s latest show ‘Intervals,’ a recession into thoughtfulness by Ruijingya Tang Staff Writer

According to the Chinese proverb “the spectator sees the game better than the players,” one may only critically reflect on certain situations from a distance. Therefore, people’s constant, voluntary disassociations from and re-evaluations of their natural states of being are crucial catalysts for dissidence and change. To put it in the language of “Intervals,” the sixth Polykhroma exhibition since the organization’s establishment, “Gaps in space, time, events, and objects … help us navigate the world and age we live in.” According to Eliza Ball, one of the nine current members of Polykhroma, the organization is a non-Tufts-affiliated student group focused on curating art exhibitions featuring artwork from the Tufts community and the Greater Boston area. In the past, the organization has accepted submissions from Harvard, Northeastern and the Somerville area. That being said, all nine members of the organization are Tufts students, and the majority of works displayed at Polykhroma exhibitions come from Tufts artists based on both the Medford/ Somerville and Fenway campuses. “Intervals” opened at 48 Winthrop St. on Dec. 1. The exhibition featured 21 Tufts artists and 21 works, although some artists collaborated on one piece, while others submitted more than one. The works on display employed various media including painting, drawing, performance, photography, video, audio, mixed media and installation. Two artists featured in “Intervals,” Aidan Huntington and Jake Zaslav, shared insights regarding their inspiration and creative processes in interviews with the Daily. Huntington is a third-year student enrolled in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts combined-degree program majoring in fine arts and anthropology. Huntington’s “help me understand this place i inhabit/ this family i embody/ the people i am and am not” (2017) was the only performance exhibited at “Intervals.” During their two-hour-and-40-minute performance, Huntington traced the pages from a children’s book written and illustrated by their grandparents. Every time they finished tracing one page, they stood up and nailed it to the wall behind their seat. By the end of the performance, Huntington had finished tracing the whole book. Huntington regarded their work as an exploration of the queer identity and its presence as an “interval” within “patrilineal nuclear family trees.” “There is that ever-present aspect of my identity that is tied to this family history, and I have been trying to understand my place in that as both a continuity of it and also this kind of break in it,” Huntington said. Before “Intervals,” Huntington had created many time-based pieces of art in the form of videos and theatrical performances. The artist discussed the significance of conducting their artwork at “Intervals” through the media of performance and time. “It was important that people saw the process and saw the time that went into it and understood that it was something that

NORA NORD / THE TUFTS DAILY

An artwork from the exhibit “Intervals” which features the 21 works of Tufts artists is pictured on display at 48 Winthrop Street. was taking me time to do, and that I was really being intentional about.” Performance and time not only illustrated the onerousness of Huntington’s journey of seeking family connections, but also furthered the journey itself. “That performance is both a performance to convey this exploration but also very much in itself me trying to explore it. It was this very personal meditation,” Huntington explained. Regarding the reason behind their lack of direct interaction with the audience throughout their performance, Huntington explained, “I wanted the audience to engage with the piece of work I was creating, instead of with me as the person… I wanted them to be able to watch me as the piece.” When asked about their post-“Intervals” plans regarding this artistic theme of finding connections with their family history, Huntington said that first they were still conceiving a way to preserve their traced sketches; they might bind them into a book. The artist might also restage “help me understand this place i inhabit/ this family i embody/ the people i am and am not,” but at a slower pace within a duration of four to five hours. Jake Zaslav, a sophomore who studies music at Tufts, had two works on display at “Intervals,” including “PostModern Nasal Drip” (2017). The installation featured an iPad connected to two headphones playing an audio file, accompanied by a table and two chairs. The installation was designed to be simultaneously experienced by, likely and preferably, two strangers. The two individuals would listen to the same piece of music while facing each other across the table. The music featured a trumpet, a piano, a bass attached by hanging bells, human humming and human coughing. According to Zaslav, the music in “PostModern Nasal Drip” was a collectively improvised piece that gained its meaning only after its production. “When I listened to it afterwards, that’s when I came up with this idea that … that weird time, when you are still awake, and you are in bed, you don’t want to get up yet, but you are still not falling asleep. That’s one of my favorite times. It’s just a weird in between moment,” Zaslav said. The title of the installation is a witty wordplay on post-nasal drip, an accumulation of mucus in the nose that causes

the most discomfort in the morning. The insertion of “Modern” into the title has both a literal and a figurative layer of meaning. On one hand, it speaks to the style of the music being postmodern, on the other hand, it constitutes a satirical critique of the limiting and exclusive aspects of the nature of genres. Zaslav explained, “I think genre is a very weird thing. There is a natural human tendency to group things into titles and areas, but also they are just very limiting. Genres are also traditionally assigned by these corporations as a marketing thing. And when you go into the history of genre, there’s also other issues when it comes to race and how genres are essentially made to create white people’s music and black people’s music.” “PostModern Nasal Drip” is not only an interval in time, but also an intermediary between comfort and discomfort. The audience was pressured with the anxiety of having to share an intimate experience with a complete stranger, but they could also sit in a very comfortable setting that Zaslav had designed. The artist elaborated on his fascination with observing people’s reactions in situations of discomfort. “You get interesting emotional responses to discomfort. What do people do, how does that affect how they listen to the music? But simultaneously the installation is also evocative of comfortable scenes, with the tissue box and chairs.” Collaboration was key to the creation of “PostModern Nasal Drip,” as well as the majority of Zaslav’s other improvisational music pieces. “Every single part has been a collaboration: the making of the music, the recording, the mixing, getting the materials, the curation… It’s weird for me to say that I compose works, I rely a lot on the other musicians.” The artist attributes his predilection for communal projects to his background in jazz. “Jazz education is really drilled into this idea of influence. Everything you do has influence by other musicians. We quote other musicians, and we are constantly taught about the history of jazz as well.” Disrupting us from our mundane progression in life and prompting us to question our past, current and future states of existence, the Polykhroma exhibition is in itself an installation providing an interval from our daily preoccupations.


A&L Arts & Living

Tuesday, December 5, 2017 | Arts & Living | THE TUFTS DAILY

7

CONCERT REVIEW

St. Vincent stuns the House of Blues with heartfelt performance by Antonio Bertolino Assistant Arts Editor

On Thursday Nov. 30, the enthusiasm for the Boston leg of St. Vincent’s “Fear the Future” tour was palpable in Fenway. Fans fervidly lined up around the block outside The House of Blues, as some gave in to the temptations of a hot dog stand for second dinner. The venue was brimming with guests of all ages, with a heavy representation of college students and frequenters of the Boston concert scene. For St. Vincent, real name Annie Clark, “Fear the Future” marked the first tour in two years. The goal was to promote her recently released album “MASSEDUCTION” (2017). The hiatus from touring was a much-needed lull in Clark’s musical career, as she had been on the road since the age of 16, when she followed her aunt and uncle’s jazz band as an assistant. In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Clark revealed that she traversed different stages during this pause in an exploration of her identity away from charter buses and daily live performances. Each track on the new album is a testimony to a different phase St. Vincent went through in the past two years, part of an evolution as an individual and as an artist. And this willingness to display her growth also seemed to be evident in Clark’s decision to open her performance with “Marry Me” (2007), the title track from the first album in her career. The musician peeked from behind a sizeable blue curtain on the far stage right, donning a pink leather outfit,

with matching thigh-high boots consistent with the “MASSEDUCTION” aesthetic. “Marry Me” showcased St. Vincent’s fragile side, with lyrics relatable for the ones among us who always seem to choose the wrong person for whom to catch feelings: “I would have to agree / I’m as fickle as a paper doll / Being kicked.” Clark, who got a different colored guitar after every song, performed a few tracks from her eponymous album “St. Vincent” (2015), such as “Rattlesnake” and “Birth in Reverse.” The blue curtain initially on stage progressively started to open up, revealing a backdrop of a shrieking face reminiscent of 1980s horror movies in Technicolor. However, it is significant to note that compared to shows from her 2015 tour, when Clark would climb on top of speakers (and one time even fell off back onto the stage), this concert felt a lot more intimate and mature, even when she was playing songs from her previous album. Much to the crowd’s jubilation, Clark then commenced playing track from “MASSEDUCTION,” including the catchy “Pills.” The second song on her new album, “Pills” tells of a side of St. Vincent’s persona that loved indulging in “bacchanalia,” which the artist tried to separate herself from while collaborating with producer Jack Antonoff last spring. The chorus of “Pills” also told the audience of Clark’s past, as it was originally sung by the singer’s ex-girlfriend, supermodel Cara Delevigne. Clark gained momentum with “Masseduction” and “Sugarboy,” before reaching the show’s first climax with one

of the album’s two singles, “Los Ageless.” For this track, Clark collaborated with her aforementioned uncle and aunt to create a pop-y, effervescent sound that clashes with the song’s dark lyrics. The lines “I guess that’s just me, honey, I guess that’s how I’m built / I try to write you a love song but it comes out a lament” recount St. Vincent’s frustration with her past relationships and her difficulty to disclose her feelings. After a few more songs, St. Vincent performed the much-awaited “New York” to stunning visuals in the background, which showed her pressing her finger into a telephone-shaped cake. Once again, the singer employed a mélange of a cheery melody with som-

READY TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR WORLD? DO THE UNEXPECTED. Apply by January 1 peacecorps.gov/apply

ber lyrics: “I have lost a hero / I have lost a friend / But for you, darling / I’d do it all again.” Some say these lines might refer to the passing of David Bowie, who acted as a true muse for St. Vincent’s artistic production. Overall, the show was a definite success, providing the audience with a phenomenal concoction of stunning, plastic visuals and, of course, great music. Perhaps, the one critique that this Daily writer would make to the singer is that the performance lacked the same amount of energy to which Clark’s audiences had grown accustomed. However, St. Vincent compensated for this purposeful lack of dynamism by putting on a heartfelt, intimate show.


8

THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Tuesday, December 5, 2017

1/4

tuftsdaily.com

1/8

1/2


Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Opinion

9 tuftsdaily.com

CARTOON: FINALS

by Maria Fong

OP-ED

Let’s talk about the ‘Greedy administrators’ by Noah Weinflash Content warning: This op-ed mentions sexual assault. When Reagan started his crusade against welfare, he referred to Linda Taylor, his example of all that was wrong about government assistance programs. He propped her up as an example of “welfare queens” in low-income neighborhoods, who were supposedly collecting tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of dollars in government assistance while living in luxury. With taxes too high, he looked for a scapegoat, an unsympathetic character — a taxpayer-leech. Reagan’s narrative of welfare spending was that it was largely being lost due to waste, fraud and abuse, therefore costing the taxpayers their hard-earned money. Back in the 1960s and ’70s, people complained about veterans leeching off the system by utilizing the G.I. Bill. In the mid to late 2000s, wasteful military spending became the target of scorn for many Democrats. This isn’t to say that these examples are the same, but the comparison is clear: When people are upset with how their country, their community or their school is running and feel they are not getting their money’s worth, they turn to a scapegoat who seems unsympathetic. At Tufts, that scapegoat is the ephemeral “administrators.” I understand that this stance may come off as hostile toward those complaining about Tufts’ rising

tuition or lack of adequate support for students from low-income households, so let me be clear: Tufts must address these problems, and I support all those who actively point out ways in which the decision-makers at Tufts — the Board of Directors, or the “University Leadership,” as the Tufts website calls them — can improve the structural problems that exist at Tufts. But simply criticizing fatcat administrators for having salaries that are too high without specifying which administrative positions are unnecessary and what qualifies as “too high” a salary, as a recent column in the Daily has, is one of the worst ways to effect any type of helpful change. The article discusses the rapid increase of administrators on college campuses and the lack of improvement because of these administrators. They discuss the diseconomies of scale colleges have as they get larger, as if this is a bad thing. The reason schools get more administrators is because as schools get larger, there are more specific needs for students. Expanding programs for sexual assault prevention and assistance, student assistance services, finding donors and distributing finances all are goals that schools should aim for as they expand. Tufts’ departments often fall short in programs like these, to be sure. But to claim that the problem is that we have too many administrators and they are paid too much is incredibly problematic when

student groups (often rightfully) demand more and more from administrators every year to improve life at Tufts. Ultimately, my point is simple: Criticize useless spending at Tufts in a specific way. Criticize a lack of transparency in the posting of salaries and administrator roles. We should demand that the Tufts website post the salaries of our highest-paid employees that are already publicly available through IRS filings, but are nearly impossible to find. The website should also have a page that very clearly maps administrators to their ultimate job’s purpose — many administrators are very difficult to find through the main website, and their roles should never be obfuscated — they are here to help us. I have another point to make, which I imagine will be much more controversial: I don’t give a damn about tuition increasing. Why shouldn’t students who are from high-income households, such as the 77 percent who are in the top fifth of the United States pay a slightly higher tuition, and use those extra tuition dollars to help students from lower-income households? I recognize that with the financial aid system we have intact right now, this would not be helpful for many students, as many students are from households that are deemed out of the range of financial need, but the point is that raising tuition on those who can afford it helps those who need the assistance. In the meantime, students from privileged backgrounds

need to have the uncomfortable conversations with their families to ask them to donate to Tufts, specifically for financial aid. I know that it’s difficult, and will often be met with “I already pay enough for you to go to that damn place!”, but on the chance you can convince your parents or other family members to donate, it’s perhaps the most concrete way to improve financial aid at Tufts. I get it. Tufts decision makers often make decisions that are antithetical to what we believe Tufts ought to do as an institution. All those decisions need to be called out. But creating a boogeyman for rising tuition in “fat-cat administrators” isn’t going to change anything. If there’s one thing I full-heartedly agree with from Luke Murphy’s column, it’s that students must voice their concerns. But these concerns have to be specific and thoughtful, rather than reminiscent of political campaign attacks. Attend the town hall on Dec. 5. And when you do, have something specific about the administration or the way Tufts spends its money that you want to criticize. “Administrators” are not the problem. Tufts’ problems are an amalgamation of hundreds of smaller problems that can be fixed one bit at a time. Let’s start chipping away. Noah Weinflash is a junior majoring in cognitive and brain sciences and quantitative economics and a former editorialist at the Tufts Daily. Noah can be reached at Noah.Weinflash@tufts.edu.

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.


10

THE TUFTS DAILY | Opinion | Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Shantel Bartolome and Conor Friedmann Bored & Confused

Where are conspiracy theories from?

T

his week, Mike Hughes, a California limousine driver, intends to launch himself 1,800 feet (549 meters) high on a homemade rocket. His goal is to photograph the earth, to show proof of the flat Earth on which we live. “It’ll shut the door on this ball earth,” Hughes said in an interview with a flat-Earth group for the flight. Hughes is a member of the Flat Earth Society, a group that affirms that the Earth is a flat disc, not a sphere. The group denies photographs of the Earth from space, which one would think would disprove such flat-Earth theories. They say that NASA is being controlled by roundEarth Freemasons and Elon Musk makes fake rockets from blimps. While entertaining for some of us, conspiracy theories are not always harmless. The notion that vaccines cause autism has led to a decrease in vaccinations in some areas, and climate change denial is putting our entire (round) planet at risk. But where do these theories come from? What makes people latch on to seemingly ridiculous ideas, rejecting what should be common consensus? Conspiracy theories offer simple explanations for complex situations and often allow people to believe they know something that the elite and powerful wish to hide. For this reason, conspiracy theories are especially potent in dictatorships, where information, especially from the government, is often unreliable. Conspiracy theories are especially problematic because some are nearly impossible to refute. The U.S. government cannot prove that it didn’t fake the moon landing, nor can it prove that it does not have aliens in a lab in Nevada. But how do conspiracy theories come to be? While conspiracy theories are popular under dictatorships, they also are prevalent in democratic states, such as the United States. This is because, says sociologist Stanley Cohen, it begins as a moral panic. “A condition, episode, person, or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media,” he says. A crucial feature of the moral panic is a “folk devil” which is typically a scapegoat who has nothing to do with the threat. Cohen says, “The folk devil often takes the form of a conspiracy.” For this reason, conspiracy theories are most common during economic downturns, but they also flourish during economic upturns. For example, the idea that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was building secret concentration camps was popular on the left during the 1980s and on the right in the 1990s, both of which were periods of high economic growth. However, the variable in this case was which political party was in power, which supports the notion that whatever party is out of power has worried that the party in power would turn fascist. Today, the United States seems to be again in the midst of a moral panic, which may be a significant cause in the rise of groups such as the Flat Earth Society. With Hughes’ launch expected on Tuesday of this week, maybe we’ll find out for certain if those wretched Freemasons have been lying to us all along. Conor Friedmann is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Conor can be reached at conor.friedmann@tufts. edu. Shantel Bartolome is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Shantel can be reached at natasha. bartolome@tufts.edu.

tuftsdaily.com

LETTER TO THE EDITOR This past semester, the members of the Tufts Zamboni magazine compiled and published an issue under the theme “Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquissisue.” The theme was chosen by the group as a whole, and modelled after a joke in the television series Monty Python’s Flying Circus, produced by the British comedy group Monty Python in 1970. Following how the Zamboni develops content, once the theme was announced, our staff of terrific writers and artists held brainstorming sessions to develop content for the issue. Sadly, some of the jokes in this issue did not land nearly as well as expected, and for that, we apologize. Our goal as a comedy magazine is to provide absurd humor to the Tufts community, and as is the nature of comedy, we never expect our content to amuse everyone. We frequently work to eradi-

cate offensive material in our issues, and with a staff comprised of people from a variety of backgrounds and religions, we feel comfortable with the content we produced. We do understand that not all levels of faith are represented by our publication, and we are deeply sorry to those we’ve offended. We value religious freedom and did not intend this issue as an attack on faith but rather as a brand of “poking fun” humor that typically we pride ourselves on. We worked hard to quell any jokes that we thought went too far, as we do in every issue we publish, but we saw this issue as more benign than it was interpreted. We stand by our publication and its contributors, but we also acknowledge that it may have crossed lines. One of the best ways that we, as creators, can learn and adapt to pro-

duce content that can reach more and more people with a positive outcome is to receive feedback. We are indeed a publication operated through the Tufts Community Union, and we are always happy to receive feedback, comments and to open a dialogue about how to better approach comedy on campus. Better yet, anyone who wants to can submit content and ideas to us, as we accept submissions from every person here at Tufts — just write us an email at tuftszamboni@gmail.com to send us submissions, or to get more info about our publication. Thank you, Jess Silverman & Craig Drennan Editors-in-Chief, The Zamboni Magazine


Sports

Tuesday, December 5, 2017 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts falters only to NESCAC rival Amherst in first seven matches WOMEN'S SQUASH

continued from back only loss thus far. Against a talented Amherst team, only two Tufts players came away with individual victories as the Jumbos fell 7–2 to the Mammoths. Junior Zarena Jafry played in the third spot on the ladder for Tufts and defeated her opponent in an intense, backand-forth five set match. Playing sixth on the ladder, senior Lauren Banner was the only other Jumbo to record an individual win. After falling 3–11 in her first set, Banner showed great resilience, fighting back hard and eventually defeating her opponent in five sets. First-year Julie Yeung played in the number one spot for the Jumbos in her first ever collegiate match. Yeung rose to the occasion of playing at the next level, playing relentlessly despite falling to her opponent in the fifth set. “Amherst is ranked higher than us so we knew going in that we were the underdogs,” junior Sahana Karthik told the Daily in an email. “We were obviously upset by the loss but continued to have hard practices, and that definitely helped us stay positive for the next few matches.”

ICE HOCKEY

by junior defenseman Keanu Hilaire and, less than two minutes later, firstyear defenseman Jack McCool scored a second goal on a power play following first-year forward Peter Hatton’s holding penalty. Despite being two goals down after the first 20 minutes, the Jumbos were much more aggressive in the second period, recording 16 shots on goal compared

Arlo Moore-Bloom The Equalizer

The next USMNT coach

T RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY

Junior Sinclair Meggitt swings at the ball in a match against Dickinson at Harvard’s Murr Center on Jan 20. The Jumbos were successful in not letting the initial hard-fought loss discourage them as they headed into their remaining four matches that weekend. The Wesleyan

match was Tufts’ final match of 2017, but the team will look to continue its success on a West Coast tour when competition resumes in January.

Tufts nearly makes comeback in third period versus Williams

continued from back

11

to the Ephs’ four. However, Ephs senior goalie Stephen Morrissey saved every shot on goal, even on the sole power play opportunity for the Jumbos. Tufts sophomore forward Anthony Farinacci nearly scored on a one-on-one with Morrissey in front of the goal at the end of the second, but Morrissey was able to make the stop. Unfortunately for the Jumbos, they conceded again with less than a minute remaining, putting the game. Both teams battled it out in the third period. Williams junior forward Marcus

interested in being a

PRE-ORIENTATION

LEADER?

Applications released after winter break!

LEARN MORE AT PRE-0 TABLING IN THE CAMPUS CENTER LOBBY Thursday, January 24th

Mollica scored early, at 1:28, bringing the score to 4–0. However, the Jumbos were not discouraged and launched a comeback attempt in the third to get within two goals of a victory. Sophomore defenseman Jordan Haney put the Jumbos on the board at 6:55 with his goal from outside. A few minutes later, at 14:02, senior captain defenseman Dan Kelly scored again for Tufts, assisted by Farinacci. It was both Haney and Kelly’s first goals of the season. Senior goalie Nik Nugnes was removed from goal for the last two minutes of play as the Jumbos desperately sought to equalize, but ultimately the team was unable to score again and the final score remained 4–2. “We outshot our opponents in both games, we just couldn’t get past the goalies,” sophomore defenseman Jaret Koger said. “Obviously we didn’t get the results we wanted, but we dominated our opponents four out of six periods this weekend and there are a lot of positives to draw on.” Being 1–5–1 so far this season, it would be easy for the Jumbos to lose morale, especially since their offense is generating a huge number of shots. However, the players are determined to prove themselves and the guidance from their new captains, Nugnes and Kelly, has really helped them stay focused. “Nugnes is always getting us fired up before the game and giving high energy,” Koger said. “[Kelly] sets the tone on the ice and is always helping us focus. They both lead by example. Also, Nugnes doesn’t always play every game because he’s a goalie, but he always finds other ways to be a leader on the sidelines.” The Jumbos are on the road this weekend, playing the Bowdoin Polar Bears on Friday, Dec. 8 and Colby the next day in Maine. The team is then off for winter break until Dec. 27, when it will return to training for its following game at Plattsburgh on Jan. 5. The Jumbos are hoping to make improvements in their play and come home with a few more wins for Tufts. “We’re a young team and we’re slowly building our confidence,” first-year defenseman Tom Tresca said. “We know by the end of the season, our record will reflect our hard work. We’ll get there.”

he next U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) coach will have an excellent opportunity to set up the team for future success. After missing out on the 2018 World Cup, the next coach will have more than four years to assess players, determine style of play and tweak tactics to their liking before the next World Cup rolls around. Although the CONCACAF Gold Cup and friendlies are important, the World Cup is the major goal for any serious international team. As I’ve written before, the problems that soccer faces are systemic and deeply rooted — they cannot be solved in just a few years. But that doesn’t mean the right coach cannot vastly improve our national team. So who should steer the USMNT out of the ditch of 2017 and back onto a road to success? The candidates floating around have been numerous, but only a few are in serious contention for the position. Caleb Porter, the former coach of the Portland Timbers, has experience coaching younger players at Akron College, and his successes as a MLS coach — winning the MLS cup with the Timbers in 2015 — make him an attractive fit. He also has experience in the international setup, coaching the USA U-23 team in 2013. Tata Martino, currently the coach of Atlanta United, which placed fourth in the Eastern Conference this year, brings a wealth of experience to the table — he coached Barcelona in 2013 and also coached Chile to the Copa America final in 2015. His knowledge of the MLS and international play makes him a great choice for the next USMNT manager. A logical in-house choice would be Tab Ramos. Ramos has overseen the development of DeAndre Yedlin, Christian Pulisic and Matt Miazga over the course of his tenure as the U-20 coach since 2011 and his role as technical director since 2013. His expertise with young players could prove hugely beneficial considering he would have over four years to continue developing such players. For a team that is only growing older, Ramos would confidently inject much-needed youth into the mix. But my choice for the next manager is Huddersfield Town’s David Wagner. The German of American descent oversaw Pulisic’s development as a reserves coach at Dortmund; furthermore, he’s familiar with the underdog mentality that the USMNT adopts on the global stage. In the 2016–2017 season, he miraculously saved Huddersfield Town from probable relegation in England’s second division, and in the same season the side achieved promotion. This year, his side faces an uphill battle in the ever competitive Premier League. Wagner’s ability to unite his teams, illustrated by a 2016 summer bonding trip to the Swedish wilderness where his players were forced to survive with no electricity or technology, would benefit an American side that struggled with identity before. Moreover, with Wagner at the helm, Ramos could continue his invaluable work as technical director of the USMNT. As this column and this year come to an end, we bid goodbye to a year that American soccer fans will always remember and always will want to forget. A new dynamic, exciting manager to energize the senior group would do well to leave the dark storms of 2017 believed and venture into a brighter tomorrow. Arlo Moore-Bloom is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Arlo can be reached at arlo.moore_bloom@tufts.edu.


12 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

ICE HOCKEY

Tufts battles undefeated Williams, shut-out by Middlebury in frustrating losses by Julia Atkins

Contributing Writer

This past weekend, the Tufts hockey team competed against two other NESCAC teams on its home ice. Tufts faced off against Williams College on Friday and then hosted Middlebury College on Saturday. Although the Jumbos lost both games, they still felt they improved as a team. “Any time we have two NESCAC teams coming to play at Tufts, we know it’s going to be a hard weekend,” sophomore defenseman Cooper Stahl said. “Every single team we play in our league brings great competition and the games can go either way. We worked really hard during the second and third periods during both games. We didn’t get the results we wanted, but there were still some good things that came out of the weekend.” Following its 4–2 loss to Williams, Tufts hosted Middlebury on Saturday afternoon. Middlebury came out strong in the first period with a quick goal at just 0:43 by senior forward Vincent Gisonti. The Panthers controlled the game during the majority of the first period, with a second goal at 12:30 by junior defenseman Jimmy McKee. Although the Panthers brought more intensity, the Jumbos outshot them 8–4 in the first period, and the defense improved throughout the period. Sophomore forward Ross Delabruere nearly put the Jumbos on the board with a shot at the end of the first, but senior goalie Stephen Klein just barely saved it. The Jumbos’ first-year goalie Drew Hotte also made an impressive paddle save in the first period. The game picked up in the second period and Tufts came out more aggressively. Once again, Tufts had twice as many shots on goal compared to Middlebury (14–7). However, the team found it very difficult to get the puck in the net with Klein in

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior forward/defender Matt Pugh, first-year defenseman Cory Gottfried, and senior goalkeeper Sean Kavanagh protect the Tufts goal during the game against Amherst College at the Malden Forum on Feb 11. goal. Despite Tufts’ ability to turn the game around and take control and the advantage of two power plays for Tufts, neither Tufts nor Middlebury scored in the second period. Similarly in the third period, Tufts outshot Middlebury 15–3 and dominated throughout the entire period, but neither team scored. Hotte saved all three shots on goal that he faced, while on the other end of the rink seven of Tufts’ players took shots during the third. In an attempt to get on the board, Tufts took Hotte out of goal for the last two minutes of play, but the final score remained at 2–0. This was Klein’s second straight shut-

out against Tufts, after the Panthers beat the Jumbos 1–0 in January on its home ice. “We have to figure out how to start well and come out strong,” Delabruere said. “Our coach has been telling us that if we believe we’re a good hockey team it will show on the ice. Things will start falling into place.” Despite outshooting Middlebury 37–12 and maintaining control of the game throughout the second and third periods, Tufts could not find a way to get past Klein. The Jumbos still put forth a great effort and played with high energy after losing 4–2 the night before. Friday was also the Jumbos’

alumni game, so they had many of their old teammates in the stands cheering for them. “It was great seeing some of the older guys back in town for the alumni game,” Stahl said. “They laid the groundwork and it’s nice for them to come back and see what they started and how it’s progressing.” Friday night’s game had a similar outcome. Tufts played against the undefeated Williams College team that came out strong in the first period and took early control of the game. Williams recorded its first goal at 14:34 see ICE HOCKEY, page 11

Women’s squash dominates the beginning of the season with 6-1 record by Delaney Tantillo Staff Writer

The No. 19 Jumbos are off to an impressive start this season, going 6–1 in their first seven matches. On Saturday Dec. 2, Tufts played its first matches after a well-deserved Thanksgiving break. The team traveled to Middletown, Conn. to face William Smith and Wesleyan. Tufts played No. 21 Wesleyan University on Saturday afternoon immediately after facing William Smith. This was the closest match the Jumbos have played this season, as they edged the Cardinals 5–4. High energy coming off of the William Smith match fuelled Tufts against Wesleyan. “I think the team used the momentum from our 9–0 win against William Smith that morning to keep up our energy for the match against Wesleyan,” Deveaux told the Daily in an email. The team’s depth was on display in this contest as the wins came from Nos. 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 on the ladder. The Jumbo’s depth was most evident in junior captain Chista Irani (8)

and first-year Chloe Kantor’s (9) matches as both Irani and Kantor needed just three sets to defeat their opponents. Playing in the number four position, Windreich’s match decided the outcome of the competition as the score was even at 4–4. Despite the pressure of both teams watching her match, Windreich remained calm and focused, defeating her opponent in four sets. Playing at number one for her seventh-consecutive match, Yeung was defeated for only the second time this season by Wesleyan senior Laila Samy. Despite this being her first season as a Jumbo, Yeung has impressed teammates and coaches with her high level of play. “Julie is an extremely talented player. She performs well because of her general composure – in addition to having skilled shots and getting to the ball quickly, she is very calm on court and manages to maintain the same level of play even under stress,” Karthik said in an email to the Daily. Tufts began the day by defeating William Smith 9–0. Jafry played an impressive and

resilient match as she defeated her opponent 13–11 in the fifth set. Each of the five sets in Jafry’s match were decided by a two-point margin. Playing as the fourth seed, first-year Rachel Windreich had a dominant match, defeating her opponent 11–2, 11–1, 11–3. Before Thanksgiving break, Tufts faced Mount Holyoke and Hamilton at home on Nov. 18, followed by Wellesley and Boston College on Nov. 19. The Jumbos were dominant against all four opponents, losing just two matches over the course of two days to finish the weekend with a 4–1 season record. On Sunday, Tufts played its third straight day of matches as they faced Wellesley and Boston College. The Jumbos defeated both teams 9–0, and every one of the 18 matches of the day lasted just three sets. The Jumbos had a quick turn around as the team faced the Hamilton Continentals immediately preceding their match with the Mount Holyoke Lyons for its second in-conference match in two days. The Jumbos showed no signs of fatigue as they easily defeated the Continentals 9–0. All but two of Tufts’ victories came in three sets.

Tufts faced 28th-ranked Mount Holyoke and recorded a decisive 7–2 win. Yeung, again playing in the No. 1 spot for the Jumbos, won her first individual collegiate match in just three sets. Mount Holyoke defeated Tufts at only the No. 2 and No. 3 positions, as numbers four through 10 for the Jumbos were all victorious, with all but one victory coming in only three sets each. Playing three out-of-conference matches in one weekend was important preparation for the Jumbos in their upcoming NESCAC matches, which tend to be their most competitive. “We consider every one of our matches important matches, but obviously conference matches mean the most. Playing teams who are not in the NESCAC helps us prepare for the bigger matches because it allows us to get on court and perfect our shots,” sophomore Katie Deveaux told the Daily in an email. The Jumbos opened their season on Nov. 17 with an away match against NESCAC powerhouse Amherst, where they recorded their see WOMEN'S SQUASH, page 11


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.