SPORTS FEATURE
Students struggle to receive accessibility accommodations see FEATURES / PAGE 3
Christian Zazzali balances soccer, baseball, academics at Tufts
The new Taylor can come to the phone right now see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 5
SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE THE
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VOLUME LXXIV, ISSUE 46
tuftsdaily.com
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
University resolution sanctions Greek life organizations by Charlie Driver Staff Writer
A message released this morning has announced the results of the investigation into the Theta Delta Chi, Zeta Psi and Delta Upsilon fraternities, as well as the Chi Omega sorority, signaling the completion of the more-than-one-year-long investigation of nine Greek organizations at Tufts. Theta Delta Chi, also known as 123, will have its charter revoked after being found guilty of charges of hazing, alcohol policy violations, Code of Conduct violations and sexual harassment. 123 may not petition to return to campus until 2027 at the earliest. Zeta Psi, charged with the same offenses as 123, will go into suspension effective until September 2018. Delta Upsilon, charged with hazing, alcohol policy violations and sexual harassment will also be suspended until September
2018. Chi Omega will be on disciplinary probation until Dec. 6, 2018, meaning the organization is not in good standing with the university and must make certain changes, but can continue operations as usual. The Chi Omega sorority was found guilty of hazing and alcohol policy violations. The message was signed by Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences James Glaser, Dean of the School of Engineering Jianmin Qu, Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon, Director of Public and Environmental Safety Kevin Maguire and Executive Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) Jill Zellmer. The findings come a year after a Tufts Observer article prompted the university to investigate the Greek life system, unleashing a flood of official complaints against Greek life organizations and requiring further investigation, according to McMahon.
In September, Tufts released the first resolutions of two Greek organizations under investigation. They were both placed under disciplinary probation, Pi Rho Omega until December 2017 and Delta Tau Delta until June 2019. In October, the results of the investigation into Theta Chi were announced: the fraternity is under disciplinary probation until October 2019. Pi Delta volunteered to dissolve in January 2017. McMahon explained why Zeta Psi received only suspension instead of revocation of recognition despite being found guilty of identical offenses as 123. “There’s a wide range of degrees of anything, and the degree of the violation impacts the degree of the sanction,” she said. McMahon said that after her office presented 123 with a resolution, it opted to appear before the Committee on Student Life in hopes of a softer sanction.
The committee, which according to its website serves in part as a disciplinary panel comprised of students and faculty, presented the fraternity with the 10-year charter revocation that they accepted. McMahon noted that the appellate judgment was harsher than the original sanction. “It is more egregious than the sanction we offered, although we also offered revocation for a significant period of time,” she said. She also explained that even though the university has revoked 123’s recognition as a Tufts student organization, effective immediately, the current residents of the house will continue to live there until the end of the academic year. She explained this was due to current residents’ commitment to creating a positive residential experience. see GREEK LIFE, page 2
ResLife announces changes to housing lottery process by Seohyun Shim News Editor
The Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) announced changes to the housing lottery process through their website, and students will receive an email from the university explaining the details of the changes, according to Matt Austin, associate director for housing operations. Austin said that the changes primarily aim to shorten the length of the housing selection process to as short as two weeks, compared to the previous system in which some students had to wait as long as 10 weeks to know their housing for the following academic year. The changes will also let the upperclassmen know ahead of time whether they will get on-campus housing or not. Under the new lottery process, all students seeking on-campus housing, including sophomores, who are guaranteed housing, are required to apply for a lottery number to participate in the housing selection process, according to Austin. This also applies to rising seniors who already have their lottery numbers, according to the website. Austin said that sophomores who don’t apply for a housing lottery number won’t be removed from the housing selection process, but that not applying for a housing lottery number will adversely affect their housing lottery number assignment. Austin explained that the intro-
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SEOHYUN SHIM / THE TUFTS DAILY
Associate Director of Housing Operations Matt Austin gives a brief presentation on housing lottery system reform before the Senate during its regular meeting on Oct. 15. duction of this rule will help ResLife more easily envision the process of choosing housing and inform juniors and seniors in December whether or not they will get a space on campus.
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According to the website, all students will find out their lottery number or if they were waitlisted by Dec. 20. “We are hoping that by this application process happening in December,
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that students will have more time to find something off-campus if they need to,” Austin said.
NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................3 COMICS.......................................4
see LOTTERY, page 2
ARTS & LIVING.......................5 OPINION.....................................8 SPORTS............................ BACK
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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, November 14, 2017
tuftsdaily.com
Three fraternities, one sorority receive final resolutions GREEK LIFE
continued from page 1 “It’s a recognition of the current students’ investment in partnering with us to create a safe and consistent experience for the people living there,” she said. As for next fall and beyond, McMahon is unsure who will live in 123’s house. The house is owned by alumni, and it is their prerogative to decide on a use for the space, she said. The Daily reached out to 123, but the organization declined to comment. According to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life (OFSL) webpage, to be reinstated on Sept. 1, 2018, Delta Upsilon must ensure that its members receive training on a number of topics, including hazing prevention. Next year, if its petition for reinstatement is approved by the university, Delta Upsilon will be placed on disciplinary probation for a year, and be responsible for a review of its membership process as well as follow sanctions to promote education and safety. Current residents of the Delta Upsilon house will be able to remain in residency for the rest of the academic year. After the fraternity’s reinstatement, the house will remain in the hands of the organization, but will have to be alcohol-free for an as-yet-unspecified period and will house a community development advisor. Delta Upsilon did not respond to the Daily’s requests for comment. Unlike 123 and Delta Upsilon, the residents of the Zeta Psi house must move out by January, and according to Adam Billig, the president of Zeta, and McMahon, the house will be unoccupied for the spring 2018 semester. Billig, a senior, explained that, though the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) is trying to find on-campus housing for all the evicted members, the move will be a financial burden for some. “A lot of the kids who live in the house [do so] because of how cheap it is. It is significantly cheaper than a dorm,” he said. Billig explained that Zeta will be able to return to the house once they are reinstated as an organization, which is a possibility next fall at the earliest. Once reinstated, Zeta’s disciplinary probation will be harsher than that of Delta Upsilon. The organization status page explains that it will last for two years. Additionally, the Zeta Psi house must be alcohol-free for five years. Chi Omega, the lone sorority named in the resolution, will be placed on disciplinary probation until December 2018. McMahon explained that Chi Omega’s disciplinary probation means that they can still recruit and function as usual, but they also are working closely with Student Life to make changes, including to their recruitment process.
Seniors Hannah Macaulay and Ellie Heinrich, the president and vice president of Chi Omega respectively, praised the OFSL for working closely with them through the investigative process and into this probationary period. “I think it was an extremely constructive relationship,” Macaulay said. “I can sit down with anyone in the OSFL and have a candid conversation.” With resolutions issued for all Greek life organizations, McMahon already sees evidence of change among the surviving fraternities and sororities. She had high praise for the leaders of fraternities and sororities, who she said generally accommodated and welcomed the opportunity to reform. “They have been genuinely trying to impart change on their organization,” she said. “They’ve done a good job in many cases.” She added that even though some of the offenses took place several years ago, the current leaders have been quick to accept responsibility. Luke Murphy, who is a member of Pi Rho Omega and the president of the Interfraternity Council (IFC), believes that the current leadership is moving Greek life in a positive direction. “I think there is now the right energy and the right people in charge. In any organization, the culture comes from the top,” Murphy, a senior and columnist at the Daily, said. Billig said that in Zeta, the brothers are seizing the opportunity to reform, rather than doing it reluctantly. “The environment in the organization is not a ‘We’re forced to do this,’” he said. “It’s much more of an ‘Okay, wow, we really understand why this is necessary.’” McMahon did not see a problem with the system of punishment for Greek life organizations, which focuses on punishing the organization as a whole rather than individual members responsible for certain offenses. “If you join a Greek organization you are joining with the understanding that you hold responsibility for your collective actions,” she explained. She also emphasized that Tufts always follows up with individuals named in conduct cases. Opponents of Greek life believe that that the sanctions included in the resolution do not go far enough. According to Yoji Watanabe, who said they have helped organize against Greek life and create protest gear, the resolution fails to address underlying problems in Greek life. “Transphobia has not been addressed. Racism has not been addressed. Homophobia has not been addressed. These issues are all swept under the rug,” Watanabe, a sophomore, told the Daily in an electronic message. Watanabe also expressed a desire to receive more information about the investigations so that the student body has a more complete understanding of Greek life organizations’ problems. McMahon acknowledged that social life at Tufts is in flux.
“There is a question of ‘what do we do now?’” McMahon said. “What do students want to do to rise to the challenge of having a social experience here that’s inclusive, healthy and still really fun?” However, McMahon was quick to say that the diversification of social life at Tufts should be led by the students, not the administration. “We don’t want to say we don’t have any responsibility to create a positive social experience at Tufts, but an administration-managed social experience at Tufts is not what we need,” she said. Tufts Community Union (TCU) President Benya Kraus said that the university has a responsibility to invest in social life, specifically in alternative social spaces. Alternative social spaces were one of the major recommendations made in the final report of the Student Life Review Committee, of which Kraus was a member. University President Anthony Monaco tasked the committee to comprehensively review student life at Tufts in January, following the start of the investigations of the Greek system. Some alternative spaces have already been made available, including the space formerly called Brown and Brew Coffee House. Kraus and McMahon both highlighted the opening of this space to student groups as an important development. In future years, other spaces are also slated to expand the social geography of Tufts. Kraus was keen to mention Capen Village, the university’s plan to reclaim some of its freestanding buildings as student spaces, as something coming next year. In the more distant future, McMahon explained how the Tufts bookstore could move to the planned Cummings building, which will be located next to Halligan, opening the space it currently occupies for student use. Kraus has a plan for this space when it becomes available. “Our vision for that is to use the bookstore space as flexible usage for student social life,” she said. One use would be the establishment of a student-run pub, a possibility she is working on planning with first-year TCU Senator Janey Litvin. However social life at Tufts develops, Greek life remains a part of it for now, albeit in an altered form. McMahon mentioned that the Greek organizations that could recruit this semester did so with great success. Murphy explained that there was a heightened focus on intentionality during recruitment this fall. He said that the process was not isolated from the discourse on campus surrounding Greek life. “We made a real effort to have discussions with potential new members about Greek life’s place on this campus,” he said. Murphy also highlighted a peer review system that IFC has put in place this semester to oversee each organization’s pledging process and prevent hazing.
“This is the first semester where there has been as concerted an effort as there should have been to prevent [hazing],” he said. Macaulay said that interest in fall rush for sororities was much larger than many in leadership positions expected it to be. The new member class enters into a Greek life system that Billig said plays an important role in helping students who have had trouble fitting in elsewhere on campus. “A lot of people have trouble finding a group of friends without being a part of an organization,” he said. He explained that he had been in that situation the fall of his first year at Tufts, and joining Zeta Psi gave him a chance to make friends and find a home on campus. “I think the close-knit community and diverse backgrounds allow for unique bonds to be made,” he said. Heinrich stated that for her, Chi Omega served a similar purpose, providing a place for her to meet people without needing to have a shared interest or skill, like singing or playing a sport. Kraus acknowledged that Greek life is a community for many people, but argued that its problems rested in its dominance of Tufts social life and its institutionalized position. She used the metaphor of a “social ecosystem” to make the point that Greek life can be a valuable part of the Tufts social sphere going forward, but only as a part of a larger whole. “[The student body needs] to make sure there are different outlets and we have a social system which really feeds off and is energized by student creativity,” she said. Watanabe also criticized the institutionalization of Greek life, noting that only Greek life has the OFSL, but no similar campus administrative body exists for other on-campus small houses. “There is an entire support structure available to Greek organizations that simply are not available to other organizations on campus, so it is unsurprising that Tufts’ social life can appear to revolve around Greek organizations,” they said. Mauri Trimmer, a sophomore who also opposes the presence of Greek life at Tufts, told the Daily in an electronic message that it was important to diversify access to space on campus. “If Tufts was truly committed to an attitude of inclusivity and equity, allocating combined social event/housing space for marginalized groups would be a step in the right direction,” Trimmer said. McMahon is looking forward to the process of creating a more diverse social life at Tufts and thinks that the resolutions of the investigations into Greek organizations mark the start of that evolution. “We have an opportunity to become national leaders in having a co-curricular experience that is dynamic, holistic, inclusive, really fun and safe, and this whole process can lead us in that direction,” she said.
Austin aims to speed up length of housing process with new lottery system LOTTERY
continued from page 1 Austin noted that ResLife will inform rising seniors of their placement in relation to other rising seniors applying for a lottery number. “If they are the last senior in the group and only 300 [seniors] have applied, they will know that there are
300 people on the list, instead of thinking there might be 1,500 people on the list,” Austin said. Then students with lottery numbers will select their housing in March, except for those who plan to apply for a space in special-theme housing in early February, according to Austin. Another change is that Stratton, previously a dorm exclusively for seniors,
will be an option for sophomores, with the singles converted into doubles. Austin added that he has been in contact with a number of students since he proposed the changes at the Oct. 15 Tufts Community Union Senate meeting. He also said that there have been changes to the proposed plan. For example, the lottery number for a group will still be an average of
lottery numbers of people in the group, instead of counting only the highest lottery number in the group. Students will have an option to enlist another student as their potential roommate so that the students who wish to room together will both have lottery numbers or wait list numbers, instead of one having a wait list number and the other having a lottery number.
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Features
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Students with less visible disabilities struggle for accommodations by Grace Yuh
Features Editor
The unforgiving incline that divides Tufts campus into uphill and downhill is a part of students’ everyday lives and most of the time it is something they grow used to. But for several members of the Tufts community who identify as being physically disabled or physically differently abled, the physical barriers of campus, as well as the physical demands of being a student, are things that they must think about every day. According to an email from Kirsten Behling, director of Student Accessibility Services (SAS), to the Daily, Tufts refers to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as a basis for defining disability. The ADA defines disability as a “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.” Among the resources available to students on campus, Behling cites SAS as the main entity that assists students with physical disabilities. SAS supports undergraduate and graduate students by aiming to promote an accessible college experience for students with disabilities. Their services include note-takers, alternate formatting of course materials, reduced course load and a variety of other academic accommodations shown on their services webpage. According to Behling, any student with a disability or any student who may not yet be diagnosed but believes they have a disability can register with SAS. Students are required to submit diagnostic documentation, after which they will meet with SAS staff to determine qualification for accommodation. She went on to explain that granted accommodations are good for one semester and must be updated to carry over into future semesters. Senior Sidney Beecy found herself involved in this registration process this past summer when an ACL injury left her unable to walk for the first week of school, with additional difficulty traveling on and off-campus for the following weeks. Without adequate information on physical disability services on the SAS website, Beecy began an exchange with SAS Assistant Director Kimberly Doan. While Beecy hoped to receive a parking pass that would give her access to faculty/staff parking areas to travel between home and classes, she found it to be a much more difficult process than she imagined. “They emailed me back and said that there was no way they could help me get to campus that first week,” Beecy said. “They also told me that the only way to get a parking pass was to purchase one.” Beecy responded that this was financially not an option for her, as she would be out of work for several weeks to recover. A residential student parking pass costs $360 a semester for the Medford/Somerville campus, according to Tufts’ administrative services website. She was then told by Doan that her best option was to take a leave of absence for the semester. Feeling as though she was being made to choose between recovery and her final fall semester at Tufts, Beecy reached out to the Dean of Student Affairs, Mary Pat McMahon, to express her frustration as advised by her major advisor. It was only then that she was granted a specialized parking pass, an additional and extremely taxing process
that took several weeks of miscommunication between SAS and Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) to resolve; it was so emotionally draining that it brought her to tears. “I’m in a privileged position because I’m only injured from a surgery for a few months. There’s currently no way on campus to get people around. If you’re living on this campus with an injury, there’s no way to get to class without physically moving on crutches. And it’s not [an] SAS issue, it’s an institutional issue,” Beecy said. The confusion and frustration of Beecy’s experience extends to the experiences of several other Tufts students who have permanent physical disabilities. Although Senior Anjana Gupta was diagnosed with pelvic floor dysfunction, which has weakened the muscles in her hip and diaphragm area, she cites that she hadn’t had any accessibility services needs until this year. “It was fine until this year because I never really had to walk up the hill because I lived off-campus, and I avoided the hill every day,” she said. “This year, when I came back to classes, I realized that I couldn’t make it up the hill anymore. I had to stop and take a breath because my muscles just couldn’t take the push of having to walk uphill.” While Gupta also required a parking pass that would allow her to travel to class by car, unlike Beecy, Gupta initially reached to Health Service to receive a doctor’s note. Gupta was denied the note on the grounds that she was not physically disabled enough. After this exchange, Gupta reached out to Doan at SAS in search of other resources. “[Doan] reached back to me really fast and set up a call with me. She said she couldn’t help me but she was nice, I wasn’t upset. So, I asked what I could do, and she said I could try getting a note from my doctor and have it sent to health services,” Gupta said. According to Gupta, while SAS can help disabled underclassman students bring a car to campus, because Gupta is already an upperclassman, she had initially purchased a normal student parking pass. However, Gupta noted that the parking area behind Miller Hall that she has access to is still difficult for her to go to and from class in Lane Hall. She is currently working with her doctor and physical therapist to receive a handicapped parking pass to be able to park more freely. Claire Pernat, who plans to graduate in 2020, unlike Gupta and Beecy, has additional experience in taking a leave of absence. “SAS was actually the first group to label me as ‘disabled,’” Pernat said, who was diagnosed with a connective tissue disorder. The disorder affects Pernat’s whole body, often very randomly she said, and leaves her unable to write or sometimes even move. Initially thought to be a temporary injury, Pernat said she was registered with SAS for temporary accommodations after a difficult series of communication. “They were like, ‘Send us a doctor’s note.’ So, I immediately did,” Pernat said. “And then I didn’t hear from them, so I emailed them again. They said ‘We need this other form,’ so I immediately sent them that. This process kept up for several days.”
ANGELIE XIONG / THE TUFTS DAILY
The pictured handicap ramp/bike lane connects the downhill campus and Tisch Library, on Nov. 8. It wasn’t until Pernat’s mother intervened that Pernat was granted temporary accommodations. Even after she was granted access to services, Pernat found herself having to update her doctor’s notes every few weeks until she took medical leave to undergo surgery again. Taking medical leave was a choice that Pernat made but she says it is not one that she would make again. “You have to submit a lot of stuff to come back from medical leave,” Pernat said. “I didn’t realize how lengthy that process was and if I had known before, I probably would have chosen to take personal leave. I had to talk about what had changed and prove why I could come back.” After Pernat’s return from leave, her doctor submitted a letter confirming that she would be permanently diagnosed. “After they got that letter from a doctor saying that this will never change, they’ve been really good,” Pernat said. For students like Pernat and Gupta, who have less visible or invisible disabilities, the process of acquiring services can be made more difficult. According to an email from Doan, in such situations where a student’s disability is non-visible, hard evidence serves as the most important point of qualification and explains the case-by-case basis of accommodations. “Students’ requests for accommodations are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, as each student’s individual experience is unique,” she wrote. “Since many disabilities are non-visible, the medical documentation submitted from a student’s clinical team is crucial in determining if the student qualifies as a student with a disability as well as which reasonable accommodations may be appropriate for their academic or residential experience.” Pernat found that, despite the medical evidence she provided, the nature of her disability and the accommodations she required made for an experience that was difficult to explain. “A lot of people assume that I am able-bodied and that I can do a lot of things because I look like I can. I had to submit quite a bit of evidence that I was disabled,” Pernat said. “The thing that amazed me was that even when I had this huge brace on, [SAS was] apprehensive about it.” Gupta, who initially worked with Health Service to accommodate her disability, spoke about experiencing similar issues.
“I understand that I’m not visibly disabled but it’s an invisible disability that’s hard to see,” she said. “I think people don’t understand disability as much when they’re this invisible.” Between Beecy, Gupta and Pernat, there seemed to be an understanding that, while SAS was providing communication and options, there was a lack of structure, funding, informed decisions and often a lack of scope of power that allowed them to be as useful a resource for students with physical disabilities as they could be. “They’re just very disorganized and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of financial understanding for people who can’t pay for the pass,” Beecy said. “It was almost like they had never had to deal with it or think about it. The first option shouldn’t have just been ‘Quit school.’” Pernat spoke to the various changes that SAS could make from her experience with acquiring accommodations, taking leave and assimilating back to campus life. “One, make the process a lot clearer before students take leave and even when they’re trying to come back, make it a very clear and transparent process. Because now, it’s not either. It’s very confusing. Two, with that, have a process that lets students know they can come back. For a long time, I didn’t know if I could come back,” Pernat said. “Just streamlining that process, or having someone designated to working with specific cases instead of having five different people to contact would help. Additionally, support systems for students who are coming back from leave would also help.” Doan expressed that SAS is committed to working to support students with diverse needs while additionally hoping to inform students of their work in increasing visibility, developing educational opportunities and promoting universal design. “We are steadfastly committed to providing students with the best support in and guidance possible and always remain open to feedback, and would encourage individuals with specific concerns to reach out to us directly,” she wrote. Having been through the process of seeking accommodations, Pernat recognizes the efforts of SAS but also hopes for further improvement. “I know they’re trying, and I know that they’ve made changes,” Pernat said. “But there’s a lot they can still do.”
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THE TUFTS DAILY | Comics | Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Comics
LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Eddie: “I’m just gonna take this time to explore my glutes.”
Comics
Puzzle 1 (Medium, difficulty rating 0.46)
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NON SEQUITUR BY WILEY MILLER
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Difficulty Level: Doing the Tuesday NYT in Aramaic.
LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY
Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/sudoku on Tue Nov 14 03:29:03 2017 GMT. Enjoy!
Monday’s Solution
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
Relax and review accomplishments. Clean up and plan what’s next. Imagine and invent what you would like. Talk about your dreams. Act on one. RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich CROSSWORD Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Fancy pillowcase 5 Not as expensive 9 Stats for sluggers 13 Lotto variant 14 Actress Davis played by Susan Sarandon in TV’s “Feud” 15 “Alice’s Restaurant” singer Guthrie 16 *2010 Grammy winner for Best Metal Performance 18 Opinion sampling 19 2,000 pounds 20 French possessive 21 __-Ball: midway game 22 Discreetly, in slang 26 Nag, nag, nag 28 Black-eyed __ 29 Electrified particle 31 Without an escort 32 Bygone Honda sports car 33 Impassive type 35 Dry-sounding deodorant brand 38 ICU drips 39 *TV cooking competition hosted by Padma Lakshmi 41 Sch. in Columbus 42 Tiny laugh 44 Bundle of papers 45 Put into service 46 Airline to Tel Aviv 48 Flub it 49 Letter-shaped hardware item 50 Sinuous ski race 52 Gets in the way of 54 H.S. exams 55 Dripping 57 SEAL’s org. 58 Tech news site 59 Paint choice ... and what the first word of the answers to starred clues can literally be 64 Longfellow’s “The Bell of __” 65 Standoffish 66 Just sitting around 67 Pear variety 68 Mix, as a salad 69 What Simon does
DOWN 1 Word before bum or bunny 2 “Tell __ About It”: Billy Joel hit 3 “That’s __brainer!” 4 Wall calendar pages 5 Welcoming prop on “Hawaii Five-O” 6 Scheduled takeoff hrs. 7 Opposite of cheap 8 Taste and touch, e.g. 9 Nas or Nelly 10 *Started a construction project 11 More green around the gills 12 Shoe bottom 14 Old Western villain 17 “The Simpsons” bartender 22 Footnote ref. 23 __-racking: very stressful 24 *Money-saving investment accounts 25 Belt holders
27 Chief of __: Army leader 30 Wall recess 33 Make off with 34 Sorbonne sweetie 36 Point to debate 37 Collaborative 1993 Sinatra album 40 Half a winter warmer 43 Stretchy 47 Like 1% milk
49 Wimbledon sport 50 __ Domingo: Dominican capital 51 __ Yello: soft drink 53 23rd Greek letter 54 Picket line crosser 56 New Mexico town known for its art scene 60 Lean-__: shacks 61 Wash. neighbor 62 Tricky 63 Guys
Monday’s Solution ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
xwordeditor@aol.com
By Janice Luttrell ©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
11/14/17
11/14/17
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
ARTS&LIVING
5 tuftsdaily.com
Nikki Margaretos Is This Thing On?
Musical landscape in motion
COURTESY THE CW PRESS
‘Supernatural’ is an American fantasy horror television series that follows two brothers as they hunt demons, ghosts, monsters and other otherworldly beings.
Turning to TV to fight the winter blues? The CW has some advice by Julian Blatt
Contributing Writer
Content warning: This article mentions suicide. As winter quickly approaches and the cold threatens to chill us to the bone, the constant battle we fight against the darkness becomes overwhelming. Indeed, severe drops in temperature cause great pain to people all across the globe, with approximately five percent of the U.S. population being affected by seasonal affective disorder each year. However, as the leaves fall and the beautiful oranges and browns are reduced to a monotonous, drab gray, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” (2015–) and “Supernatural” (2005–) remind us that we have no choice but to keep living and march on, for spring patiently waits just around the corner. After Josh (like the schmuck he is) abandons Rebecca at the altar in “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” she plots her revenge against him for ruining their wedding. Unfortunately, Josh uncovers incriminating secrets from her past and shares them with her friends. Although said friends attempt to help Rebecca move on, the intervention backfires when she verbally assaults everyone present (individually) before packing her bags and flying back home. Rebecca has officially reached rock bottom; she hates everything that represent her old life in Westchester, especially her mother — but she has nowhere else to go. She (falsely) believes the people she has grown to love in West Covina have turned against her and no longer feels as though her life contains meaning. In one deeply troubling scene, her mother sneaks into Rebecca’s room to discover
what Rebecca has endeavored to conceal on her laptop, only to be greeted by an article entitled, “The Nine Least Painful Ways to Kill Yourself.” Lo and behold, a woman who has never missed a chance to make Rebecca feel like a failure is suddenly nice to her, even presenting her with strawberry shakes, a childhood favorite. Rebecca is so grateful for this drastic change in her mother’s behavior that she sings the first song in the episode: “Maybe She’s Not Such A Heinous Bitch After All.” After much needed mother-daughter bonding (which supposedly makes up for an entire lifetime of negligence), Rebecca begins to feel well enough to return to California. However, one theme this show seems to love is that nothing good can last for more than five minutes; of course the mom laced the milkshakes with anxiety medication. How can Rebecca trust anyone ever again? Clearly she does not believe she can, since as soon as she boards the plane she swallows all of the remaining pills. Nevertheless, it is at this moment, when she sees no point in continuing on, that she glances up, and in her drug-addled daze the “HELP” button (to summon the flight attendant) appears to read “HOPE.” If not even Rebecca Bunch, one of the most pathetic and hopeless characters on TV, has given up the fight, then neither should we. Any CW fan’s list of pathetic and hopeless characters is also sure to include Dean Winchester from “Supernatural.” After last season, all of the Winchesters’ friends and family are presumed dead, including the angel Castiel (who, as fans have speculated for many years, may have a relationship with Dean that goes beyond plain friendship) and Winchester mother
Mary (having only returned from the dead one season ago!). These losses, along with the burden of having to babysit Lucifer’s newborn son Jack, leave Dean feeling angry and lost, unsure of how to proceed. His downward spiral reaches a climax during a ghost hunt, when he decides to temporarily kill himself to communicate with the ghosts. If there’s one thing the Winchesters are known for, it’s their inability to stay dead. However, as fans may remember, the reaper Billie told the brothers that the next time either one dies, there would be no redos. Though Castiel killed Billie, due to “Supernatural” logic she has returned as the new Death (the previous one was killed by Dean at the end of season 10). Surprisingly, Billie gives Dean the choice to be revived, but he refuses. Dean has given up his will to live; the “family business” has at last become too much for him. However, Billie tells him that of all the ways in which fate predicts Dean to die, suicide is not one of them. Dean still has “work to do,” and at least for now we must keep on living. Even though we are college students in the real world and not vengeful theatrically inclined exes or monster hunters on television shows, we can still learn a lot from the lessons these shows desire to teach us. Yes, every day brings new obstacles that we must struggle to overcome. But, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we should also remember to be grateful for these challenges, as they are what shape us into our true selves and make the good moments that much sweeter. Keep on fighting, and take comfort in the fact that Thanksgiving break is just around the corner.
Wake up people — the way we listen to music is changing in front of our eyes. From how we listen, to how we share, to even what music we are exposed to, it’s no secret that behind the scenes of this industry lie shifting money and politics. My question is, what are we going to do about it? First, let’s think about how we listen. I always cringe when I see a family in their car, with a backseat full of kids, headphones in, not talking to anyone else. Yet it’s no worse than when I listen to music on my five-minute walk across campus. If you walk onto any MBTA car today, you’ll see rows of heads bent over tiny screens. Recently, I had a conversation with Tufts Professor of Psychology Ani Patel, and we remarked on how music has traditionally played a large role in cultural and social situations. It brings people together and allows them to share common experiences — a common enjoyment. Research has proven that music, like other auditory sensations, provokes real emotions which foster a sense of community. Yet somewhere along the line, after the invention of portable music players (no, not John Cusack holding a 20-pound radio over his head), we decided that music was going to become a private experience. Consider the stigma around using public ‘sessions’ on Spotify — some are not comfortable with their friends seeing what they listen to, while others (myself included) shamelessly publish all of it. Just as I don’t always wear makeup or presentable outfits, I don’t always listen to ‘cool’ music. And I’m okay with people knowing that. In fact, the social aspect is my favorite part of Spotify; seeing which musical odds and ends are in my friends’ playlists makes me feel like I know them a little better, as cliché as that might sound. For a generation which so overtly shares its life in photos, blogging and networking profiles, why don’t we have a better method of sharing our music taste? The music industry has become somewhat of an oligopoly. We have our multi-millionaires who have extreme influencing power over the platforms leveraging the license of their work. Need an example? Taylor Swift’s refusal to stream her albums “1989” (2014) and now “Reputation” (2017), forcing listeners to purchase ownership of the tracks. Jay-Z decided to exclusively release “4:44” (2017) first on his platform TIDAL, and later to more services, yet excluding Spotify. One group decided to abuse Spotify’s pay-per-stream model by releasing an album of silence. In 2014, Vulfpeck created a 10-track ‘album’ titled “Sleepify” (2015) and instructed fans to play it on repeat while they slept. In the short span of seven weeks, Vulpeck garnered almost $20,000 in royalties, after which they treated fans to a free tour. Once Spotify caught on, it yanked the album from the platform calling it a “stunt.” What’s my point of all this? Well, where does this leave us as listeners? Are we mere pawns, or do we actually have the most power in this game? Nikki Margaretos is a senior majoring in economics. Nikki can be reached at nikoletta.margaretos@tufts.edu.
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THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Living | Tuesday, November 14, 2017
ALBUM REVIEW
Taylor Swift embraces her bad ‘Reputation’ on sixth studio
COURTESY MERT & MARCUS
‘Reputation,’ released on Nov. 10, is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. by Justin Krakoff Arts Editor
The canon of “good girl gone bad” albums is a very selective one, capturing a female pop star at her most rebellious, rejecting the expectations of the music-consuming public. The pinnacle of this art form came in 2007 with the release of Britney Spears’ “Blackout,” a dark, hedonistic album coming at the rock-bottom of Spears’ tumultuous personal life. Following its release, Spears’ public image began to clash with her career, not unlike the moment Taylor Swift has found herself in. For Swift, 2016 was a markedly rough year for her image, with reports of a bad
breakup with Calvin Harris, a whirlwind affair with actor Tom Hiddleston following said breakup, a never-ending feud with Katy Perry, a very public fallout with Kanye West over a controversial line from his song “Famous” (2016) and subsequent public rebuttal from his wife Kim Kardashian after she posted a recording of Swift supposedly agreeing to the use of the lyric. Amidst all this, Swift noticeably took an extended break from public appearances, declining to do any major interviews and performing at very few concerts. This sabbatical continued into 2017 until Swift posted a cryptic video to her social media handles solely depicting a snake. To many, this appeared to be a deliberate
reference to Kardashian’s infamous callout of Swift and a tweet of hers stating, “Wait it’s legit National Snake Day?!?!? They have holidays for everybody, I mean everything these days!” With that, the “Reputation” era was born, and the old Swift was dead. Swift’s sixth studio album, “Reputation” (2017), released on Nov. 10, largely picks up where “1989” (2014) left off, further delving into the EDM- and R&B-influenced pop currently dominating radio. Swift calls upon frequent collaborators Jack Antonoff and Max Martin to market herself as an edgy pop siren, creating a record that contains Swift swearing for the first time and unabashedly discussing partying and her sexuality. As a result, “Reputation” is both a jarring listen and an often very catchy album, a contradiction embodied by lead single “Look What You Made Me Do.” The abrasive electropop song tackles Swift’s decline in public standing, bitterly declaring “I don’t trust nobody and nobody trusts me / I’ll be the actress starring in your bad dreams.” Ultimately, it fails because it lacks Swift’s trademark ear for melody and relies too heavily on a flaccid attempt at rapping. This edgier Swift continually shows up on the rest of the album, with increasing returns. “…Ready for It” relies too heavily on Swift’s rapping to be a true triumph, but the song’s chorus, built around the lines “In the middle of the night, in my dreams / You should see the things we do, baby,” reminds the listener that Swift is still quite capable of writing a lovely melody. “I Did Something Bad” comes wailing through the speakers, and the trapheavy uptempo track rebukes the hatred that has come her way as she snarls, “They’re burning all the witches, even if you aren’t one.” Another success is “Don’t Blame Me,” seeing Swift play up her new seductive character on the dubstep-inspired track. “Reputation” truly shines with its more sultry, subtle tracks, pairing Swift’s masterful storytelling with her newfound exploration
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of her sexuality. “Delicate,” which borrows from dancehall to create a cautious ode to romance, sees Swift whisper “My reputation’s never been worse, so / You must like me for me…” The best encapsulation of the new Swift comes with the simple synthpop track “Dress” as Swift uses her falsetto to great effect, cooing, “Only bought this dress so you could take it off / Take it off, o-o-off.” Other highlights include “Getaway Car,” a nice throwback to ’80s sounds of her previous album, and “Dancing With Our Hands Tied,” a proper dance track on an album that needs a little euphoria. “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” though a bit jarring, entertains as she directly references her own feud with West, jeering, “Friends don’t try to trick you / Get you on the phone and mind-twist you.” Swift’s sixth LP is not without filler. The album is littered with half-baked tracks. “End Game” is a massive misfire, seeing Swift collaborate with Future and Ed Sheeran to create an unredeemable rap track. “Gorgeous” feels like a bad Carly Rae Jepsen song. “King of My Heart” takes Swift’s exploration of the vocoder a little too seriously, nearly turning her into a robot. Yet it is Swift’s closing of “Reputation” that cements the record as one of her better releases. “Call It What You Want” acknowledges Swift’s departure from public life and, in a reference to her own “Love Story” (2008), sees her seeking solace in her lover, asking him, “You don’t need to save me / But would you run away with me?” Closing track “New Year’s Day” surmises the singer-songwriter’s journey, holding onto people who brought her both pain and joy. Despite it all, Swift leaves the listener with the image of her seeking comfort, somewhat fittingly on the first day of the year, singing, “You squeeze my hand three times in the back of the taxi / I can tell that it’s gonna be a long road.”
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Opinion
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Tuesday, November 14, 2017
OP-ED
Why Tufts needs to divest now more than ever by Celia Bottger Fiji is a small island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. It has a population of slightly under a million people. And in 20 to 30 years, it may no longer exist. For this reason, Fiji has sponsored COP23, the 23rd annual international conference addressing global climate change held in Bonn, Germany that began on Nov. 6. Though one of the 195 participating parties, the United States did not send its Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, to the international negotiations, a result of the Trump administration’s rejection of the Paris climate accord and of climate policy as a whole. The Paris Agreement reached in December 2015 at COP21 was a landmark achievement for the international climate change regime. It committed participating countries to implement policies that would prevent the earth from warming two degrees of celcius, the temperature identified by climate scientists as the threshold at which humans can avoid catastrophic and irreversible climate change. In June 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. In addition, he has filled his cabinet with representatives of the fossil fuel industry, namely Rex Tillerson, the
former C.E.O. of Exxon Mobil, and Scott Pruitt, the anti-environmental head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in an attempt to prevent any momentous environmental policy from forming during his presidency. Though American representation at the Bonn negotiations will not be completely invisible (the United States is sending Thomas Shannon, a respected under secretary to Rex Tillerson, to lead the American delegation), the fact that the second largest contributor to climate change and one of the wealthiest countries in the world will not take a lead on climate change mitigation is deplorable. The United States, unlike vulnerable countries like Fiji and Bangladesh, not only has the resources to enact momentous climate policy, but moreover has the moral responsibility to. Climate change disproportionately affects communities of color around the world, as these communities are usually found in the most climate-vulnerable countries such as Tuvalu or Somalia. The current leadership of the United States chooses not to prioritize climate change because they can afford to; those in positions of power in the federal government will likely not experience the worst effects of climate change because of their geographical, financial and racial advantages.
Even more distressing is that fact that our country’s environmental leadership at the federal level is headed by fossil fuel interests who will do anything to protect their industry, even at the expense of environmental and human health. The EPA under Scott Pruitt has initiated or achieved an appalling 52 rollbacks of fundamental environmental regulations, including overturning an anti-dumping rule for coal companies as well as an offshore drilling ban in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, and we can expect further destructive changes to come. What the climate needs is an end to fossil fuel infrastructure, not a green light to drill for more oil. Yet, the allure of financial gains from the exploitation of fossil fuels has proven more important to Pruitt, Tillerson and other top politicians than the future of our planet. In this short-sighted and — frankly — corrupt political climate, it is up to institutions outside of our languishing federal government to take ambitious and swift action on climate change mitigation. Tufts University is one of these institutions. University President Anthony Monaco has already pledged that Tufts will uphold the Paris Agreement by signing onto the Grand Coalition Statement on the Paris Agreement, tweeting on the same day that Trump pulled out that “#WeAreStillIn.” In addition, in spring
2016, Monaco signed the Second Nature Climate Commitment, which pledges Tufts to achieve carbon neutrality and climate resiliency as soon as possible. It is our duty as members of the Tufts community to ensure that Monaco upholds his word. Committing to the Paris Agreement and signing the Second Nature Climate Commitment are undoubtedly commendable actions that demonstrate Tufts’ priority of sustainability. However, divesting Tufts’ holdings in the fossil fuel industry would attack the very entity that poisons our political system and prevents environmental policies from crystallizing. Divestment works as a political statement to stigmatize the number one contributor to climate change, and to thus restructure the economy away from destructive energy and toward renewable, sustainable options. As a progressive institution, Tufts University needs to put its money where its mouth is and stand in solidarity with the environmental and climate justice movement. It needs to end its profiting from the very industry that exacerbates climate change, corrupts our government and ultimately harms human lives. Celia Bottger is a sophomore majoring in international relations and environmental studies and the co-leader of Tufts Climate Action. Celia can be reached at Celia.Bottger@tufts.edu.
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Shantel Bartolome and Conor Friedmann Bored & Confused
What determines happiness?
H
appiness sounds pretty simple: “a state of well-being that encompasses living a good life.” That doesn’t sound too hard to accomplish, right? And there are so many comprehensive guides explaining how to do it too! This October, Albert Einstein’s “Theory of Happiness,” a tip written on hotel stationery detailing how to live a happy life, sold for a whopping $1.56 million. His “Theory of Happiness” had two pieces of advice: “A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness,” and “When there’s a will, there’s a way.” All this hoo-ha sounds pretty easy. Unfortunately, it clearly isn’t when 350 million people — 5 percent of the world population — suffer from depression according to healthline.com. This all goes to show how happiness is elusive. Happiness is in fact so elusive that people devote their entire lives and vast sums of their money to find out how to achieve it. The question is, then, what exactly determines happiness? There is now a quantitative and theoretical methodology to happiness: “happynomics.” Happynomics seemed a little obvious in its studies. More wealth and more education meant more happiness. More corruption and more unemployment meant more unhappiness. The classic theory of happynomics was the Easterlin paradox, the idea that rich people are much happier than poor people. However, rich societies are not much happier than poor societies, and an increased accumulation of wealth does not necessarily lead to happiness. Basically, the Easterlin paradox hypothesized that you just had to feel richer than your next-door neighbor to be happier. Contrasting the Easterlin paradox’s focus on relative income, a recent mass collection of Gallup polls across various countries actually suggests that life satisfaction is significantly higher in richer countries than in poorer ones, and absolute income is more influential to life satisfaction than relative income. Money seems to pave an easier way to happiness, but not necessarily guarantee it. So,I guess money can buy happiness, at least a little. What’s actually key to happiness is low expectations. University of Southern Denmark Professor Kaare Christensen explains this through the lens of the legend David and Goliath. When someone acts as a “Goliath,” and has higher expectations of their perceived happiness, then they’re most likely to be disappointed and unhappy. Conversely, when someone acts as a “David,” they never expect much to happen and are pleasantly surprised, thus happier, when good things happen occasionally. For example, the country Denmark acts as a “David,” exhibiting cloudy, dark weather, diets of fatty foods and alcohol, and increasingly lower reported expectations every year. However, as their expectations get lower and lower every year, they get more and more pleasantly surprised. Happynomics is able to expand the analysis of happiness from mere percolation to actual data-collective and quantitative measurement. So, to answer the question “What determines happiness?” there are many factors, from low expectations to relative income, in happiness, and happynomics hopefully takes steps closer to us learning about and achieving a better state of mind. Shantel Bartolome is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Shantel can be reached at natasha.bartolome@tufts. edu. Conor Friedmann is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Conor can be reached at conor.friedmann@tufts.edu.
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THE TUFTS DAILY | Sports | Tuesday, November 14, 2017
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Zazzali thrives as multi-sport Jumbo ZAZZALI
continued from back thanks to his decision to play both soccer and baseball. “Conditioning [and] taking care of my body is the number one thing that overlaps between the two,” he said. “Strategywise for both of them, slowing down the game is the most applicable thing in order to succeed.” According to Casey, while teams try to imitate an intense atmosphere in practice, there’s no substitute for game experience. As a result, he believes that Zazzali holds a unique advantage over other athletes. “You can never underestimate how important being competitive is,” Casey said. “It’s the same juices when you have
to make a penalty kick as it is when it’s 3–2, bases loaded. You can perfect skills, but you still have to compete and play. The more guys are out there, the more they learn to … deal with adversity. You can’t replicate that, [and] Chris is getting a double-dose of it.” Of course, being a dual-sport athlete also poses many challenges, and its physical demands are just one aspect of a nuanced balancing act. The time that varsity teams spend together extends well beyond the field, as they often train, eat and study together throughout the year, as well. Zazzali must balance his two spheres, and he often misses large chunks of offseason programs and team bonding as a result. “When I’m in soccer season, I’m not a part of any [baseball programs]. On the
flip side, when [it’s] baseball season, I’m not a part of the offseason soccer stuff,” Zazzali said. “I do my best to keep in touch with everybody.” By all accounts, Zazzali has managed to navigate this difficult situation with poise, seamlessly jumping between his two teams as required and sometimes even bringing them together. Moreover, his intermittent absences don’t preclude him from adopting a central role within either group: Zazzali is respected by his coaches and teammates as much for his no-nonsense brand of leadership as he is for his talent. “You might not like it, but he’s going to be dead honest with you. I think everyone respects him for that,” Shapiro said. “He’s good at keeping other guys ground-
ed [and] being supportive when he needs to. He’s a really important personality in our team.” At the end of the day, Zazzali, who studies economics, is still a college student. While balancing a dual-sport schedule with academics is taxing, it has forced him to develop a strong work ethic. “I manage time better, I am more efficient and I focus more when the time comes to do work,” he said. “I’m a competitive person, which carries over to the classroom, but I also understand what needs to be done to maintain a healthy life.” One thing is clear: Whatever path Zazzali pursues after his time at Tufts, he certainly won’t hesitate to take on any challenges. After all, he never has.
Women’s soccer falls short in NCAA first round by Yuan Jun Chee Sports Editor
Making the almost 300-mile trip down south to The College of New Jersey, Tufts women’s soccer ultimately came up short in its first-round NCAA match against the Virginia Wesleyan University Marlins (15–7–1), losing 3–2. With that, the Jumbos finish the season at 10–6–3, an improvement of their 7–6–3 record from the previous season. Virginia Wesleyan finished as the top seed in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC), scoring 54 goals in its 19-game regular season. However, the Marlins fell 2–1 in their ODAC semifinal game against the Bridgewater Eagles (16–5–1). Given an at-large bid to the NCAA Div. III tournament, the Marlins made use of their opportunity and dealt the damage onto the Jumbos in the first half. With the game potentially being both teams’ last, the two teams started out tentatively, unwilling to give anything away to the other. Virginia Wesleyan ultimately drew first blood. The Marlins were clinical with the chances they created, as they scored three times in the opening 45 minutes. The Marlins’ leading scorer this season, sophomore forward Alex Davidson, got her team started with a strike in the 11th minute. From a corner, junior forward Brooke Adamchak found Davidson, who somehow lifted the ball past junior Jumbo goalkeeper Emily Bowers to give the Marlins a 1–0 lead. Davidson scored again in the 27th minute. First-year forward Mia Meinhardt lifted a ball from the top of the box, finding Davidson for a first-time shot past Bowers to double the Marlins’ lead. “They were a good team. They were very athletic, well-organized defensively and they had a player [Alex Davidson] who had a really good nose for goal, and I was impressed by her,” Tufts coach Martha Whiting said. “They gave us a really good game and they scored more than we did, [so] that’s how the game ended.” The Marlins were eager to press their opponents high up the pitch, leaving the Jumbos little room to play the possession-style soccer they prefer. Still, Tufts managed to manufacture a few scoring chances in the opening period. One of the best first-half opportunities came around the 35th minute mark. First-year defender/midfielder Hannah Isenhart put in a dangerous cross. When the ball was only partially cleared, Tufts’ sophomore midfielder Jenna Troccoli hit a looping volley that had Virginia Wesleyan’s sophomore goalkeeper Alicia Zamora scrambling.
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Sophomore midfielder Emma Ranalli keeps the ball away from defenders in the women’s soccer home game against Lesley on Kraft Field on Oct 17. Tufts was finally rewarded for its efforts just before halftime. In the 42nd minute, junior co-captain midfielder Emma Ranalli launched a direct free kick from just outside the box past Zamora to halve the deficit for the NESCAC runners-up. Just a couple minutes later, however, Tufts conceded what proved to be the winning goal. In the final 30 seconds of the first half, first-year Marlin midfielder Mary Alexis Jackson received the ball and warded off pressure from three Jumbo defenders. Jackson fed the ball to junior forward Kennedy Skala, who fired her shot past Bowers to give the Marlins a 3–1 lead. “It was back and forth [that first half ]. Fortunately, we’re good at reacting to adversity,” Tufts senior co-captain forward Alex Scheman said. “But instead of playing our game in the first half — and we didn’t play badly by any means — it was hard to just let it all out in the first half because we just didn’t know what we were expecting.” Virginia Wesleyan tried to kill the game off early in the second half, with sophomore forward Marli Hayward, firstyear forward/midfielder Anna Pedicone, junior midfielder Julia Downing and senior midfielder Zoe Traficante launching shots at Bowers’ goal in the opening five minutes of the second half. Yet in the 63rd minute, somewhat against the run of play, first-year forward Sophie
Lloyd — Tufts’ leading goalscorer and the NESCAC Rookie of the Year — connected with Sadler’s cross into the box to reduce the deficit. Tufts pushed its players forward in the waning minutes of the contests, looking desperately for an equalizer to save its season. Sadler tried to turn provider again with a cross for Lloyd in the 80th minute, only for the latter’s header to fall straight into Zamora’s arms. Tufts’ best chances came in the closing minutes. Another enviable opportunity came in the 89th minute, when sophomore midfielder Ashley Latona’s blocked shot was worked out to sophomore midfielder Sarah Maloney via Ranalli. While Maloney had plenty of power behind her strike, the shot beat Zamora but could not beat the post and came crashing back off the crossbar. The ball was then worked in again from the left-hand side with an inviting cross to the back post, but Sadler slipped at the final moment under pressure from Zamora and placed the shot high over the bar. Whiting felt aggrieved about the noncall, but also expressed that conceding three goals in the first half put her team in a difficult position. “Sarah Maloney came flying forward, took a great shot, hit the underside of the crossbar and came straight back down,” Whiting said. “Whether it went in or not
— it looked like it did from our angle, but the official said he had it covered — we put ourselves in a position where we had to score and score. [When] you get scored on three times, it’s tougher to come back.” While the season might have ended prematurely, there is much to look forward to. “It’s hard to get beyond this season already and to look forward, but the nice thing is that we’ve a bright future. We’ve got a lot of talented players coming back, [and] we’ve got a very talented group of freshmen coming in who will complement the returning players very well,” Whiting said. “The nice thing is that we have had a taste of success and what it actually takes to be successful, and once you know that, you can build on that.” For Scheman, the program is in good hands due to the quality of the returning players next year. “Good things bring good things,” she said. “I think we had such a solid freshmen class this year because last year we started to develop in terms of knowing that we were a good team. With this firstyear class that was wildly successful, I think it would encourage other recruits to come that are top-quality and contribute to the program… I’ve [got] a lot to look forward to as an [alumna] coming back to watch.”
Sports
Tuesday, November 14, 2017 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY
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Moore-Bloom Men’s squash prepares for early-season NESCAC Arlo The Equalizer competition The U.S. Soccer
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RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY
Junior Brett Raskopf kneels to hit the ball in a match against Dickonson at Harvard’s Murr Center on Friday, Jan. 20, 2016. by Ryan Albanesi Staff Writer
Led by new coach Joe Raho and stacked with impressive first-year recruits, men’s squash is more than ready to begin its winter season on Friday, when the Jumbos will travel across the state to a dual match against Amherst. Tufts finished last season with several notable victories, including a 7–2 win over Conn. College in a consolation round of the NESCAC tournament. With their season-opening match against the Mammoths quickly approaching, the Jumbos see their NESCAC opponents as their primary competition this year. “We’re really eyeing the NESCAC teams we were close to last year,” junior co-captain Brett Raskopf said. “For 10 straight years, excluding last year, we’ve finished last in the NESCAC Championships … but last year we really started competing with teams like Amherst, Colby, Hamilton, Connecticut College and Wesleyan.” For Raskopf, competing against tough league opponents will be nothing new. Last season, he contributed to the squad’s win over Conn. College by defeating his opponent in three straight games, 11–6, 11–2, 11–8. Now, Raskopf will lead alongside junior co-captain Aidan Porges. “In terms of leadership, I’m just trying to foster an environment where everyone is on board with signing up to the whole team ethos,” Raskopf said. “I think we are going to get wins over the NESCAC teams this year, which is definitely not something we’ve done much in the past.” Last year, the squad struggled against NESCAC opponents but came close to beating Bowdoin, eventually suffering a 6–3 loss, and falling to Wesleyan by the same margin. In order to improve on those results this winter, the team took advantage of
off-season lift practices to improve both physically and to bond, Raskopf said. “I think lift was really good, obviously in terms of strength conditioning but also really good to get together as a team,” he said. “All the guys are ready.” Raho agreed with Raskopf’s sentiment. “I think we did a good job in the off-season,” he said. “I think pushing [the team] physically is going to be part of our success even if we haven’t played a match yet.” Almost the entire team participated in lift practices this fall, according to senior Josh Lee. “I think the amount of turnout we had at lifts, almost 90 percent of the team most of the time, is definitely preparing us for the season,” he said. “It’s the work we put in together that’s giving us the chance to beat NESCAC opponents and the new players we have.” Men’s squash starts its season with seven first-years on the team, a huge number that is an exciting part of this year’s team, according to Raho. “We have seven freshmen on this team, one of [whom], Salik Awan, is doing really quite well,” Raho said. “So I definitely think [the first-years] will be a big part of the season.” Raskopf agreed with his coach’s sentiment. “I think we recruited really well, and the team is bigger than it has ever been so we are going to make cuts pretty soon,” he said. “That just shows how serious and legitimate we really are this season. It’s competitive at all ranges throughout the ladder, from number one to number eight.” This competitive nature within the squad will certainly be beneficial when the Jumbos play against other teams, but it also helps simulate a match environment within their own practices. “Since there isn’t necessarily anybody who’s head and shoulders above everyone else, I do think there’s a lot
of parity and a lot of really close challenge matches,” Raho said. “Our number one and number two had a really brutal five game challenge match, and a lot of the matches have been close and tight… That’s good preparation for a big match because you know what it means to feel nervous and excited.” Aside from challenge matches to set up the team’s ladder, the team has been using pressure drills in almost every practice since Nov. 1, according to Raskopf. In pressure drills, one player stands in the corner of the court and hits to the player training hard for two or three minutes straight. “That guy is just being run around as much as possible so it combines fitness and also really thinking about technical aspects to the game, like length, distance and keeping the ball really tight to the wall,” Raskopf said. “We’re trying to think about every shot that we hit and not just letting random shots slip out.” According to Raho, the pressure drills also do a good job of simulating a match environment. “The game itself is very physical and very tough, so I’m definitely trying to instill that in everybody,” he said. “When one guy is just standing in the corner it means that ball is constantly coming back and that’s just preparing them for a long season where most guys will have long, challenging matches.” The Jumbos are looking to start the winter off strong by employing the physical and mental endurance they have been acquiring during these practices. With key upperclassman leadership partnered with the new blood of its talented first-years, the Jumbos are hungry for a win in their first match against the Mammoths. Tufts hosts Hamilton the very next day on Nov. 18.
coaching conundrum
n many spheres of life, better instruction leads to more qualified and developed students. Top universities attract the best professors from their respective fields — and students at such universities often come away more educated and prepared for their professional lives because of their great professors. The global soccer landscape is no different. Top soccer nations have some of the highest concentrations of high-level coaches in the world. Take Iceland, for example: A country with a population of a paltry 334,252 just astonishingly became the smallest nation ever to qualify for a World Cup. But Iceland’s rise should come as no surprise: It has one of the highest coach-to-player ratios on the planet. Per 100 players, there is one UEFA A-level licensed coach. UEFA coaching licenses, which go from F to A, are the global standard, and acquiring them becomes more time-consuming and intensive as you work up the ladder. Of course, it’s difficult to extrapolate from a country as small as Iceland. Germany has about 7,000 “A” licensed coaches, or one for every 865 players. Italy has around 2,500, and Spain has a tremendous 15,423. It’s no coincidence that top national sides in the world also have the highest number of high-level coaches. Comparatively, in the United States, there are about 6,000 players per UEFA A-level licensed coach — or about 2,500 total such coaches. This is even smaller when you consider the United States’ immense size. Six thousand players per one top-class coach illustrates another damaging aspect of U.S. soccer: There is a huge lack of properly educated coaches. How can players expect to be trained as well as their international counterparts if their coaches simply aren’t as educated as ones internationally? Through the lens of coaching, it should then be no surprise that our domestic game is struggling. What plagues American coaches from becoming top-level coaches is similar to what plagues American players from becoming top-level players: pay-to-play — that is, pay-to-coach. In the United States, it costs a whopping $4,000 to become an A-level coach. By comparison, it costs a mere $600 to do so in Germany. Prices are similarly lower in Italy and Spain. Coaching licenses are cheap in these countries because their national soccer federations heavily subsidize them. There has been a lot of talk about what to do with the U.S. Soccer Federation’s (USSF) $100 million surplus. Putting money into coaching education would yield higher quality coaches, and over time, higher quality players. More well-educated coaches means fewer coaches who focus on winning at the expense of development. It means more kids learning foundations from qualified coaches instead of from parent volunteers who coach out of necessity. And it means more competition among high-level coaching positions themselves, which can only be good for the sport. Coaching in the United States is one of the many undervalued, but integral, reasons why our sport is being held back. Next week I’ll be exploring a more controversial detriment to the growth of our sport: college soccer. Arlo Moore-Bloom is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Arlo can be reached at arlo.moore_bloom@tufts.edu.
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Sports
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
SPORTS FEATURE
Zazzali juggles life as a dual-sport athlete
EVAN SAYLES / THE TUFTS DAILY
Dual-sport athlete Christian Zazzali poses for a portrait on Bello Field on Nov. 13. by Caleb Symons Sports Editor
These days, senior Chris Zazzali is a highly successful collegiate athlete — a key member of Tufts’ men’s soccer and baseball teams. Growing up in Scotch Plains, N.J., however, Zazzali strove simply to keep up with his two older siblings, Eddie and Allie, both of whom also went on to play soccer in college. “My brother played soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, baseball in the spring and anything under the sun in the summer. My sister … was a 1,000-point scorer in high school for basketball [and] went on to play soccer at Johns Hopkins,” Zazzali said. “Growing up in that environment of always competing definitely was integral for me to keep playing sports.” Not to be outdone, the youngest Zazzali has maintained a dual-sport athletic career since his sophomore year at Tufts, making him one of only a handful of Jumbos currently doing so. Zazzali doesn’t just occupy a roster spot, either. He plays significant roles on and off the field for both teams. In the fall, the senior patrols the midfield and defense for the men’s soccer team, which has won two national championships in his career. Zazzali appeared in 16 games for last season’s title-winning squad, often providing important contributions off the bench. One such outing came in September 2016, when he notched the first goal of his college career to defeat the Brandeis Judges 1–0 in double overtime. The game proved to be a turning point for coach Josh Shapiro’s Jumbos, who entered the match with a
middling 2–2–1 record. After the clutch overtime win, the team finished the season on a 12–3–1 tear. “It was a monster goal,” Shapiro said. “[Zazzali’s] always a guy that will show up in big moments. He’s competitive, and he’s confident. Those are the guys you can look to when everything’s on the line, and he’s got that quality about him … He’s someone you want in that situation.” Zazzali also featured twice in the team’s postseason run to the NCAA championship, making substitute appearances in wins over the Springfield Pride and the UMass-Boston Beacons. After battling injuries early this year, Zazzali has appeared 10 times in the last 11 games — including twice in the starting lineup — for the No. 3 Jumbos, who have conceded just one goal all season and recently captured the NESCAC Championship. With a host of injuries on the team, Zazzali filled in at the back instead of his usual midfield position, but he has made strong contributions to one of the stingiest defensive lines in Div. III. “He’s a good two-way soccer player, he’s got some craftiness in his game and he’s a defensive player with good attacking qualities,” Shapiro said. “So he brings a lot to the team going both directions.” Zazzali shifts his focus to the diamond in the spring, where he is a key contributor for Tufts. After playing sparsely in 2015, Zazzali — who is known to his teammates simply as “Z” — broke out during his sophomore season, appearing in 31 games in which he batted .237 with 11 RBI. Zazzali also posted a .398 on-base percentage, in part thanks to his impressive walk-to-
strikeout ratio (15:14). Last year, he improved his batting average to .289, a mark that included a two-for-three outing in Tufts’ season-ending loss to the Oswego State Lakers in the Div. III Regional Tournament. Zazzali may be most valuable to the Jumbos, though, for his ability to play multiple positions: he has appeared at second base, shortstop and all three outfield spots during his career. “To have that versatility in [the] lineup is huge,” coach John Casey said. “[It] lets us keep him in the lineup without messing everything else up. If we’re playing five games, we can get him into four of them at different positions and give one guy a rest each time. He can be a defensive guy, he can start and do a lot of great things or he can come in and run the bases late in the game. He just offers so much.” Zazzali’s positional versatility is but one manifestation of his athleticism. He starred on both the soccer and baseball teams at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School, foregoing basketball only because his middle school teammates went to a different high school. Playing shortstop for the Raiders, Zazzali was a two-time First Team All-County selection for baseball. He was also voted to the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) All-State Third Team in his junior and senior seasons for his performance on the soccer pitch. At a time when young athletes are often pressured to focus on a single sport, Zazzali recognizes the benefits of his choice to reject that path. “I did the same thing as my brother: I played soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, baseball in the spring and
tennis in the summer … all the way until high school,” he said. “The way I looked at it, you see so many kids today [who] specialize in a sport, and every time I saw a kid specializing … they were getting injured. They weren’t working the muscles [in] every other part of their body. Does it hurt your skill level to not play the sport year-round? Probably. But is it better for your body? Yeah, it is.” After being recruited to Tufts by Casey, however, Zazzali intended to turn his full attention to baseball. He struggled through his first season with the team, earning just eight at-bats and striking out in five of them. While many players would treat such a performance as a signal to simplify their approach, Zazzali read it differently. He decided to try out for the soccer team the following fall. “[It] was the first time in my life playing baseball year-round. I’ll be honest, it wore me down,” Zazzali said. “My freshman season was definitely the most disappointing of my sports career, so I decided to go back to what I knew best. It was better for my psyche for sure. Instead of living and breathing baseball, which can be an intense environment, I was able to play a more athletic, free-flowing sport in soccer.” Casey echoed this sentiment. “When he [joined the soccer team], I think he got back in sync because he’d been used to playing more than one sport his whole career,” he said. Zazzali has realized a host of intangible benefits, psychological and physical, see ZAZZALI, page 10