Friday, February 17, 2017

FENCING

The Rez brews up good vibes see FEATURES/ PAGE 3

Jumbos cut through competition

Your Overwatch gives game tips, builds community see WEEKENDER / PAGE 4

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

THE

INDEPENDENT

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXIII, NUMBER 15

tuftsdaily.com

Friday, February 17, 2017

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Four Greek life organizations regain Professors express mixture of fear ability to recruit new members and hope at executive order forum

by Aneurin Canham-Clyne Assistant News Editor

RACHAEL MEYER / THE TUFTS DAILY

Students talk with current members of ATO during the fraternity's rush event at the ATO house on Feb. 13.

by Elie Levine

ities could not be reached for comment.

According to Jonah O’Mara Schwartz, vice president external and IFC representative of ZBT, IFC decided to lift its previous ban on new member recruitment for organizations that do not have cease-and-desist orders, following the appointment of a new IFC executive board this semester.

The cease-and-desist orders bar Greek organizations from having social events due to allegations of sexual misconduct, alcohol policy violations and hazing, according to the Feb. 2 email.

Because ATO and ZBT have not had cease-and-desist orders filed against

Assistant News Editor

Four Greek life organizations on the Tufts campus are eligible to begin new member recruitment processes this semester, according to a Feb. 2 email sent out by several Tufts administrators.

According to Jack Friend, president of Tufts’ Interfraternity Council (IFC), the two fraternities accepting new members this semester are ATO of Massachusetts and the Omicron chapter of Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT). Sororities Alpha Omicron Pi (AOII) Delta and Kappa Alpha Theta are hosting pre-recruitment events, according to public Facebook posts about the events. The presidents of the two soror-

see GREEK LIFE, page 2

Approximately 30 people gathered on Thursday night for a panel discussion about President Donald Trump’s executive order on refugees and immigration in the ASEAN Auditorium at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

The panel, sponsored by the Office of the Provost, was the third forum hosted by the university to discuss the ramifications of the recent executive order that attempted to temporarily bar travel by nationals of seven predominantly Muslim nations. The executive order is currently not being enforced due to a temporary restraining order that was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The panel was made up of three Tufts faculty members: Professor of Political Science Jeffrey Berry, Fletcher School Professor Karen Jacobsen and Visiting Professor of International Law John Cerone.

Following a brief introduction by Provost David Harris, the panelists presented their views on the impact of the executive order before answering audience questions.

“It’s easy — all too easy — to think of Trump as an incredibly unique figure in the history of the United States, and he is,” Berry said. “But, in terms of trying to expand presidential power, which the Ninth Circuit slapped him down for, he’s part of a long trend of presidents who try to aggrandize the office.”

He went on to discuss the possible

political strategy behind the order, noting that Trump may be pursuing a strategy similar to George W. Bush during his first term. According to Berry, Bush wrote off Gore voters and operated his administration in a way that fired up his base. Trump appears to be following the same ideological path, Berry said.

“He’s the only president that I know of who gave an antagonistic inaugural address,” Berry said.

Cerone followed up Berry’s remarks by addressing the legal challenges the Trump administration faces.

“The federal government was seeking a stay of the lower court’s temporary restraining order,” Cerone said.

“In order to get the stay, the federal government would have to show that they have a good likelihood of success on the merits and a few other elements, including irreparable injury.”

Cerone explained that the government failed to show that the executive order was likely to stand up to close scrutiny and failed to show that the temporary restraining order issued against it would cause irreparable harm.

Cerone also noted that the executive order was further compromised because it showed discriminatory intent, though it was not necessarily explicit. According to Cerone, the lower court concluded that Trump’s campaign statements regarding Muslims and refugees demonstrated discriminatory intent.

Jacobsen provided a different perspective. see TRUMP, page 2

Police Briefs Gone with the Goose A student reported his “black Canadian Goose jacket” stolen from the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center on Feb. 3 at 4:30 p.m. The black jacket had debit and credit cards inside the pockets. The student had stored it in a cubby when he went to work out and found it was gone when he came back. The Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) is investigating, but the jacket has not yet been recovered.

Swordplay TUPD and Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS) responded to a report

Please recycle this newspaper

Sunny 37 / 23

/thetuftsdaily

of a medical incident on Feb. 5 at 5 p.m. at the Aidekman Arts Center. Students were fighting with wooden sticks during a rehearsal of a fight scene for a play.

Suddenly, one stick split in half and hit a student on the head. He signed a patient refusal form and was not taken to the hospital.

Watch Your Step On Feb. 6 at 8:20 a.m., a student slipped on ice near the Memorial Steps on College Avenue, prompting a TUPD and TEMS response. After being checked

by TEMS, she was transported to the hospital for further evaluation. Tufts

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

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Facilities Services treated the area with ice melt to prevent any other falls.

Flipping Out TUPD and TEMS were called to the President’s Lawn on Feb. 9 at 4:35 p.m. after hearing of a ski accident. A student had created a ramp on the lawn and was using it to ski down the hill. He fell when he attempted a backflip off of the ski jump. He was transported to the hospital to be evaluated further.

gated by TUPD and the Medford Fire Department. The cause of the alarm was a pan of boiling water in the kitchen.

The Fire Department checked and reset the alarm.

The Howler TUPD received a report of vandalism in a restroom in Granoff Music Center on Feb. 15 at 4:10 p.m. A drawing of a wolf was found on one of the stalls. Facilities employees were sent in to clean up the graffiti.

Boiled A fire alarm activation in West Hall on Feb. 11 at 12:50 a.m. was investi-

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Friday, February 17, 2017

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

EDITORIAL

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Greek life organizations hope to be inclusive in new member recruitment GREEK LIFE

continued from page 1 them, they have been cleared to recruit new members.

Theta Chi is one of the fraternities on cease-and-desist, according to Theta Chi President Adam Kercheval. Kercheval, a junior, said that the cease-and-desist order has provided an opportunity for Theta Chi brothers to re-evaluate the structure and future of their fraternity.

“We’re taking the opportunity to kind of have a lot of introspective discussion on … how we want the future of Theta Chi to play out,” Kercheval said. “Since we can’t have social events or recruitment events … we’re all going to house meetings discussing the impacts of our house, how we can grow as a house [and] what we need to change.”

Schwartz, a sophomore, said that IFC first declared a hold on all fraternity rush in the fall. According to George Triantafillou, president and treasurer of ZBT, the university affirmed the hold.

At that time, the IFC placed a voluntary social hold on all fraternities — also upheld by the university — which was partially in response to a November article in the Tufts Observer proposing the abolition of Greek life, according to Zachary Kramer, ATO’s community outreach officer.

While ZBT and ATO are not on ceaseand-desist, they are still on social hold, according to Schwartz and Kramer.

Kramer, a sophomore, said this means they are free to host events but are prohibited from hosting events with alcohol.

“As of today, there are no plans for a formal, IFC-run rush week or unified bid day to take place this semester,” Friend, a junior, told the Daily in an email.

Though a formal IFC-run rush process is not in place, IFC has imposed close oversight on rush, according to ATO New Member Chair Aaron Klein.

Once an organization is eligible for rush, according to Friend, that organization must notify IFC of their decision to rush. In addition, new members must have a GPA of at least 2.5 in the School of Arts and Sciences and 2.3 in the School of Engineering to be considered for acceptance into a Greek organiza-

tion, Friend said.

Klein, a junior, said that ATO’s rush events are centered largely around getting to know the campus community, allowing people to feel comfortable in the ATO house and facilitating a conversation around Greek life.

“We understand that people have real concerns about Greek life, so we’re going to be facilitating that discussion a lot during rush,” Klein said. “That’s the first time people have really had access to the houses since then, so we’d be remiss if we weren’t allowing that to be a focus.”

Kramer, also of ATO, expressed a similar willingness to continue the discussion about Greek life during rush. As part of his role as Community Outreach Chair, he is planning International Movie Nights for most Friday nights.

Proceeds from snacks sold at the events will be donated to the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC).

“The goal is to have a fun movie [night] and raise money for BARCC but also to have people come into the house and see that we’re not big, bad, scary Greek life,” Kramer said.

Kramer also discussed ATO’s plans to host an “Around the World” event in which a different cultural club occupies each room in the ATO house.

“Everyone was welcome,” Alfredo Gutierrez, a first-year who attended ATO’s first rush event, said. “They told us, ‘Even if you don’t get into ATO, you’re welcome in this house at any time.’”

One ZBT rush event, entitled “Smash Bros and Wings,” is an opportunity for potential new members to eat wings and play video games in the house while getting to know the ZBT brothers, according to Schwartz and Triantafillou.

Schwartz said he hoped people who had not previously considered joining Greek life would attend to learn more about the community.

“We’re not going to hide it, we’re kind of the nerdy frat, so that’s our bread and butter right there,” Schwartz said. “We find that event good because it attracts people who didn’t think they were interested in Greek life, and then they meet all the people and they think, ‘Wow, this actually looks like a

place where I can be.’”

Schwartz added that ZBT is looking to make changes in its institutional workings this semester by increasing and better-publicizing its philanthropic efforts.

“There’s no financial barrier for being in ZBT. It’s whatever you’re comfortable with, whatever your family can pay and personally afford,” Triantafillou, a sophomore, said.

Friend also emphasized the importance of making Greek life more accessible through scholarships.

“The general goal is to make Greek life as inclusive and inviting as possible,” Friend said. “[IFC] will do everything within our power to take monetary limitations out of the picture by creating a scholarship fund this semester, something which I feel should have been done a long time ago.”

According to Friend, the Student Life Review Committee is making efforts to communicate directly with Greek organizations to make change. Friend noted that, though the three councils that govern most Greek organizations on campus — Panhellenic Council (Panhel), InterGreek Council and IFC — had not previously interacted with the Student Life Review Committee formed by University President Anthony Monaco, the Committee has invited the presidents of each council to participate in a meeting this week.

Meanwhile, according to Panhel President Meaghan Annett, sororities are still deciding on whether to hold recruitment this semester.

“They are informing their decision based on conversations with their advisors, chapter members and potential new members,” she said.

Kramer expressed hope that Greek life can be reformed from within through the rush process. In particular, he said they are looking to evaluate the role that ATO should play on the Tufts campus.

“I hope that we can … start making progress with getting rid of the inherent oppression, sexism and racism in the Greek life system,” Kramer said. “I hope we can make ATO more inclusive and open to the community and then set an example for the rest of Greek life.”

Tufts professors: Trump’s executive order unlikely to stand up to legal scrutiny TRUMP

continued from page 1 She said that, for an immigration policy to be internally consistent, the United States would have to apply the same form of rigorous vetting to all immigrants that it currently applies to refugees. Additionally, the main sources of immigration violations were people who overstayed work, tourist or student visas, according to Jacobsen.

“Why are these security concerns not extended to other groups? Well, one reason is that all of our focus on security and immigration is laser focused on the southern border,” Jacobsen said.

Following the panelists’ remarks, members of the audience had a chance to ask questions.

One Fletcher student asked the panelists to address how Afghan and Iraqi people who assisted the United States’ wars there are faring under the recent order. Cerone and Jacobsen said that Trump’s administration likely would not target them.

“The people who have assisted our military there are given a different kind of visa,” Jacobsen said.

Berry argued that the United States has an obligation to take in refugees from the region, given that the United States has contributed to the area’s political instability.

“The United States has a collective amnesia as to our responsibility for the fact that there are lots of refugees in all of these countries,” Berry said.

“We dropped a lot of bombs, we paid other people and gave them bombs to drop, we overturned governments. And it’s not completely our fault, but we are pretending like all the instability in the area is the fault of Al-Qaeda or ISIS. We should be taking more refugees.”

Another Fletcher student asked about the administration’s proposed changes to the H-1B visa program, which allows companies to bring over skilled workers. Some in Washington have proposed raising the minimum salary for a sponsored skilled worker

substantially, which would reduce the number of people that companies are willing to bring in, the student noted.

Cerone responded that the administration was likely focusing on skilled workers in specific industries.

“The [United States] has a great model for bringing in really smart people. We do so for students, through Ph.D programs, master’s programs. We bring in the best and the brightest to work in our labs. They create wealth for this country,” Berry said.

At the end of the audience question section, a Tufts staff member who identified himself as a Trump supporter addressed the crowd and the panel.

The staff member alleged that, since before the Sept. 11 attacks, people have entered the United States with bad intentions. He also noted that the corresponding increase in the state security apparatus affected everyone who wished to travel, including his aging mother.

“The status quo isn’t working,” he said.

Features

Friday, February 17, 2017

3 tuftsdaily.com

COURTESY THE REZ

The Rez frequently updates its characteristic menu.

History on the Hill: The Rez

by Grace Yuh

Assistant Features Editor

Among the coffee shops and other caffeine options available on campus, the Rez in the Mayer Campus Center seems to have a particularly strong hold among students. While the student leadership of this café changes from year to year, the existence of the café itself spans back in recent Tufts history.

Although not even the current managers know when the Rez was founded, it has been located in the Campus Center since at least as far back as 2002 (as evidenced by a Nov. 7, 2002 Daily article). Its name refers to the reservoir that used to be where the Res Quad is located now, according to a March 18, 2004 Daily article.

The Rez was a quieter and more ambient alternative to its counterpart, the Oxfam Café, which took its name from the charity it supported, Oxfam International. Having begun in the 1970s as a snack cart in front of Eaton Hall and eventually relocated to the basement of Miller Hall, the volunteer-based vegetarian café was characterized by its eclectic collection of students and musicians and slightly chaotic charm. According to an Oct. 29, 2008 Daily article, it hosted frequent concerts, gaining popularity as a concert venue in Boston in the late 2000s under the name the Midnight Café.

The Rez, along with other parts of the Campus Center, underwent renovations in summer 2009 to make it the space familiar to current students,

according to a Sept. 8, 2009 Daily article. The renovation, spearheaded by then-Tufts Community Union Senate Vice President Antonella Scarano, aimed to increase visibility and comfort and to provide better services to students. The renovations included an expansion of work space that nearly doubled the size of the café, overhauled the seating area and replaced all existing equipment. It also made the Rez wheelchair accessible.

After the closure of the Oxfam Café, the Rez opened a second location in its place in the basement of Miller Hall in February 2010. Called the REZquad, it was was a much quieter and cozier space with an ever-changing and unique drink menu — including the “Larry Bacow” named after then-University President Lawrence Bacow — according to a Sept. 27, 2010 Daily article.

The REZquad closed in 2011 when the university chose to repurpose the area into rehearsal space for student performance groups and to house the Tufts Institute of the Environment, according to a May 13, 2011 Daily article.

Today, the Rez remains in its singular and original location in the Campus Center. It is a social space for a variety of students across campus and continues to serve coffee made from beans that are equal exchange and fair trade, according to senior Bailey Werner, the financial manager at the Rez. The café, though under the operation of Tufts Student Resources, is entirely student-run.

“Every year, there are three student managers: the operations manager, the financial manager and the personnel manager,” Werner said. “Traditionally, the managers are always seniors, and you apply as a junior. It’s always someone who has been working at the Rez for a while.”

Claire Gelbart, a senior and the Rez’s current current personnel manager, spoke about how the café changes frequently due to the quick turnover of students every year.

“Because we have a new managing team every year and because we hire new staff, the personality of the Rez changes so often,” she said. “The year that I was hired, the managers made sure that the Rez was more of a unit. I think that every year it caters to a different personality.”

Ariel Feola, another senior and the operations manager at the Rez, said that the managers hope to diversify the groups of people that come to the café.

“One thing that Bailey [ Werner], Claire [Gelbart] and I wanted to bring was something new to the Rez,” Feola said. “We’ve been hoping to diversify the groups that come to the Rez, both in hiring and as students. We were looking for people who didn’t have much overlap, who didn’t study the same thing, who had different hobbies and interests and were from different social groups.”

One of the ways they hope to diversify is through hosting more events.

The Rez has hosted several events in the past, including the Tufts Observer’s Story Slam in November 2016.

According to Werner, because other campus groups cannot host events at the Rez without the Rez as a co-host, she hopes the café will collaborate with more groups in the future. Additionally, Gelbart hopes to continue and make more frequent the Rez tradition of Open Mic Nights.

“Open Mic Night started the year I was hired [in 2014],” she said. “We had such a musical staff that year, and the first Open Mic Night was a folk mic night at one of their houses. It was super well-attended, so we decided to make it a Rez Open Mic Night.”

According to Feola, the Rez itself keeps an informal record of its history in the form of composition notebooks stored behind the counter. Though the records do not trace all of the Rez’s history, they provide some insight into the different styles and personalities who have managed the Rez. “We call them Rez logs,” she said.

“They’re just notebooks that are full of notes or tic-tac-toe games that workers play during slow hours. We have a lot of them and some of them just go back years.”

There are parts of the Rez that still remain a mystery, lost in the continuous cycle of students who work or frequent the café. Regardless of how it got there and why, the Rez — with its coffee, ambience, people and the impossibility of ever finding a seat there — continues to hold a unique space in campus history.

“It’s definitely a special spot on campus that brings people together,” Werner said.

4

WEEKENDER

tuftsdaily.com

Friday, February 17, 2017

COURTESY FREEDO

Anatomy of a YouTube gaming channel: How ‘Your Overwatch’ stood out in a crowded space

by John J. Gallagher Arts Editor

“Overwatch,” Blizzard Entertainment’s first attempt at a multiplayer first-person shooter, was warmly received by fans and critics alike upon its release in May 2016. As of Jan. 26, the game has over 25 million players, been recommended by CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk and even resulted in Overwatch-themed pornography — in fact, the game rocketed into PornHub’s 2016 list of most-searched terms.

“Overwatch” sees two teams of six players square off, with each player in control of one of 23 unique heroes. Players compete to capture objectives in a colorful, Pixar-esque universe brimming with personality and full of diverse characters. Replicating the success of Valve Corporation’s promotional videos for “Team Fortress 2” (2007), Blizzard has poured resources into lavish animated shorts and colorful comics to flesh out and showcase the world of “Overwatch.” But for all this universe-building, the core of the game’s critical and commercial success is its gameplay. “Overwatch” is an extremely accomplished first-person shooter with a great deal of mechanical depth and breadth, ensuring that players of all skill levels can derive satisfaction from the game’s core competitive experience.

The game’s mechanical depth means that is it subject to the phenomenon of the metagame. In a nutshell, the metagame is an ever-evolving community conversation about the state of the game and how one can play it most effectively. If you’ve ever ventured onto a video game’s online forum and read threads debating the merits of particular characters and strategies, you have scratched the surface of the meta.

The metagame of “Overwatch” is complex, comprised of many interwoven systems and ideas that must be considered in isolation and in concert if one is to fully understand the game. Each hero has a handful of unique abilities that can be used in combination with other heroes’ abilities for maximum effect, and the prevailing wisdom about who should do what when is always in flux. Blizzard constantly updates the game, adding new maps and heroes

that players must learn while also tweaking the finer points of existing heroes and thus shifting conventional wisdom about how a hero is best played. All these changes are made in the name of creating a fairer and more enjoyable experience. Professional players also make an outsized contribution to the meta, as they devise new and unorthodox strategies in tournaments that eventually trickle down into lower levels of play.

Developing a working understanding of these constantly-shifting systems and strategies is essential to playing “Overwatch” well, but it is not easy, which makes succeeding at the game a daunting prospect.

A complex metagame is not unique to “Overwatch;” Valve’s “Dota 2” (2013) is known for its sprawling and inscrutable meta. Blizzard’s own digital collectible card game “Hearthstone” (2014) has a controversial meta that has provided fodder for a thousand think pieces. The complexi-

nel’s most popular videos have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Gaming is a crowded space on YouTube, so for a channel to amass so large a subscriber base so quickly is no mean feat. In an interview with the Daily, Freedo, who did not wish to use his real name due to fears of online harassment, emphasized that producing high-quality content was the building block of Your Overwatch’s success.

“We don’t settle for second best,” Freedo said. “We want to be the definitive helping tool for people to unlock the game … I am modeling the game in such a way that I am commanding the material, not merely presenting it to you.”

Freedo also noted the importance of not only playing “Overwatch” at a high skill level but of also respecting the viewer’s intelligence by explaining the game’s more arcane aspects rather than glossing over them.

“Our channel, unlike some others, isn’t

“We don’t settle for second best. We want to be the definitive helping tool for people to unlock the game …

I am modeling the game in such a way that I am commanding the material, not merely presenting it to you.”

— Freedo ty of such games has spawned a cottage industry of online authority figures — professional players and commentators who create content on YouTube and Twitch that is designed to help aspiring players better understand their chosen game. With the release of a highly-anticipated and highly-complex game like “Overwatch,” there was an opportunity for highly-skilled players to create content designed to help casual players gain an edge. This opportunity was the genesis of the YouTube channel Your Overwatch.

Your Overwatch is a project started by three YouTubers, Eddythechump, Weagal and Freedo, with the goal of “[covering] ‘Overwatch’ from top to bottom.” Since the first video was posted to the channel in May 2016, Your Overwatch has amassed over 300,000 subscribers, and the chan-

afraid to explain something complicated and respect the viewer’s intelligence and their ability to comprehend,” Freedo said. “I try to speak to ‘Overwatch’ gamers the way I would want to be spoken to … They know a lot about the game and they’re looking to know more, so if you just tell them what they already know, they’ll easily be bored.”

In addition, Freedo maintains that quality content must be backed by a quality marketing strategy if it is to succeed. “[Your Overwatch’s marketing strategy is] basic YouTube stuff: good titles, good thumbnails, good gaming the system of YouTube,” Freedo explained. “If you know what YouTube wants you to do for them to recommend your video, you should do that … YouTube is a search engine, and to master that is part of succeeding on YouTube.”

Although primarily a YouTube channel,

Your Overwatch also has a presence on the streaming service Twitch and the gamer-centric voice chat app Discord. Freedo views both Twitch and Discord as important parts of Your Overwatch’s success going forward, with Twitch being a long-term investment that will enable the channel’s future success even if “Overwatch” itself declines in popularity.

“At the end of the day, Twitch … is more lucrative than YouTube if you get to a certain point,” Freedo said. “It definitely isn’t for us right now, but it also theoretically can build better long-term success. I would say that we’re hoping that even as ‘Overwatch’ wanes, that the Twitch can still be there for us to entertain fans and somewhat keep this train going.”

Discord, on the other hand, does not generate any money for the channel.

Nevertheless, Freedo emphasized that the community of gamers Your Overwatch has created is important in and of itself.

“The Discord server happened basically by accident. Some fans asked us to make one,” he said. “The Discord is incredibly important to me and to us … it helps us talk to our fans directly, and that’s been an eye-opening experience … it’s a village of gamers and all that entails.”

With a rapidly-growing subscriber base on YouTube and a devoted fan base across Twitch and Discord, the immediate future of Your Overwatch looks bright. But the gaming market is fickle and Blizzard has squandered a critically-acclaimed multiplayer game before, evidenced by the decline of “Starcraft 2’s” competitive scene.

Even knowing that the success of Your Overwatch is tied directly to the game’s continued popularity, Freedo said that he and his colleagues have no plans to diversify the channel to other games.

“We may do spinoffs,” he said. “We’ve proven that our formula can work, and we’re confident that we could apply it to another game if needed.”

Nevertheless, given that approximately 50,000 more people have subscribed to Your Overwatch in the last month, it may be some time before the Your Overwatch team have to bring their trademark rigorous analysis and explanation to another game.

Friday, February 17, 2017 | Arts & Living | THE TUFTS DAILY

Arts & Living

5

Fury Sheron E For Everyone

‘Papers, Please’

W

Do it this weekend FRIDAY FEB. 17 Tufts Muslim Students Association Presents: Interfaith Jummah

SWAT & the Dean of Student Affairs Present: Mother Tongue

Details: The Muslim Students Association will be joined by the new Muslim Associate Chaplain Abubakr Fakhry for Interfaith Jummah. The event will start with snacks and discussion about Muslim practices, the importance of interfaith work and solidarity at 12 p.m., followed by Jummah prayer from 1:15–1:45 p.m. People of all identities are welcome.

Details: Spoken Word at Tufts (SWAT) will be hosting a spoken word poetry workshop and performance by award-winning poetry duo Mother Tongue, consisting of Rachel McKibbens and Dominique Christina. The duo, whose poetry centers on topics including identity, inclusion, race, gender and LGBTQ issues, will be leading a workshop at the Interfaith Center, followed by a performance at Breed Memorial Hall. Food from Oasis Brazilian Steakhouse will be served during the workshop. No tickets necessary.

When and Where: 12–1:45 p.m.; Tufts Interfaith Center, 58 Winthrop St., Medford

When and Where: Workshop: 7–8 p.m.; Interfaith Center.

Performance: 8:30–9:30 p.m.; 51 Winthrop St., Medford

SATURDAY

FEB. 18

Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival: Final Day Details: The Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival, hosted by Somerville Theatre, will be showing its last films on Saturday. Films include “Occupants” (2015), “The KAOS Brief” (2016) and “Last Broken Darkness” (2017), as well as a series of shorts. Ticket costs for individual films vary and are available from bostonscifi.com. Other festival passes are available.

When and Where: Various times, 1 p.m.–midnight; Somerville Theatre

SUNDAY

FEB. 19

Tufts ACE Fellows Present: 13th Details: Tufts ACE Fellows and TUSC Film Series will be hosting a film screening of the Netflix documentary “13th” (2016).

The Ava DuVernay film provides an in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and its relationship to the country’s history of racial inequality. Free snacks and popcorn will be provided during the film, which will be followed by a group discussion.

When and Where: 7–10 p.m; Barnum 008

—by Cassidy Olsen

hy should you play “Papers, Please” (2013)? Because it’s about immigrants, complicated political situations and empathy. What game could be more relevant right now?

Firstly, if you haven’t heard of “Papers, Please,” it describes itself as “a dystopian document thriller.” I’m sure you’re asking yourself: How on earth can documents be both thrilling and dystopian?

Welcome to the Ministry of Admission at the Grestin Border Checkpoint.

You play a man in the 1980s whose name was drawn in a forced labor lottery by the terrifyingly-brutal communist government of Arstotzka. Your job is to process the paperwork of immigrants at the border checkpoint with Kolechia, which Arstotzka recently defeated in a six-year war. You must do your job and get paid to keep your cold, hungry family alive. The catch is that many of these immigrants are good people who, while performing technically-illegal actions, are just trying to get by. They tug at your heartstrings and tempt you to break the rules. For spoiler-avoiding reasons, I won’t mention any particular examples of this.

Part of why this masterpiece is so special is that every element of the game is designed to put pressure on the players to make them think critically about not only their own actions and motivations, but also those of the immigrants. The music, which only plays on the main menu and between levels, is nothing short of overwhelming. Its slow, heavy rhythm and simple-yet-haunting melody fit very well with the theme of monotony dovetailed with pressure. The actual gameplay is silent except for the shuffle of papers, the grizzled babble of the characters and the ambient wind blowing freely through the military-guarded checkpoint. The visual layout and art, which is a truly inventive take on pixel art, obscures and abstracts the people visible from your booth into dark, anonymous figures. As they approach you, their faces are rendered in enough detail that you are forced to form an attachment to them.

But then, an empathetic player wouldn’t be nearly as invested in doing a good job if they only risked their own life to help others, so the introduction of the family element is crucial. This feature impels you to really consider that five-unit bribe because maybe it would be enough after rent to buy the medicine your son needs. All of this isn’t to say the game lacks genuine harmony or humor. It is within this most stringent frame that the player glances at extremely-heartfelt expressions of human gratitude, love and altruism that provide beautiful, albeit temporary, reprieves from the otherwise intense environment of “Papers, Please.”

The game’s developer, Lucas Pope, made the game $3 for 24 hours earlier this month as part of a campaign that raised $50,000, which he equally split in donations to the National Immigration Law Center, The American Refugee Committee and the American Civil Liberties Union. Pope, was in need of this kind of message, and only through the gaming medium can you interact with his world in such a meaningful way.

Glory to Arstotzka.

Fury Sheron is a junior majoring in Japanese. Fury can be reached at lahna. sheron@tufts.edu.

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | Comics | Friday, February 17, 2017

Comics

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Jei-Jei: “I’m surprised we can access Pornhub on Tufts Wireless.”

Comics

FOR RELEASE FEBRUARY 17, 2017

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

SUDOKU

CROSSWORD

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis

Difficulty Level: Keeping up with New England weather patterns.

Thursday’s Solution

ACROSS 1 Earth tone 6 Popular speaker 10 Unlike Wabash College 14 “Voilà!”

15 Over 16 Company with a Select Guest loyalty program 17 Ladies’ man with laryngitis?

19 Ultimately earns 20 Airport NNW of IND 21 Spicy cuisine 22 A native of 23 Goneril’s husband 25 Revered sage, in India 27 Sweeps, e.g.

28 Infant at bath time?

29 1995 “Live at Red Rocks” pianist 30 African scourge 32 Indian silkproducing region 34 Suffix with ethyl 35 “Same here” 40 Counsel 43 Cheer 44 High schooler just hanging out?

48 Highest peak in the Armenian plateau 50 Armed ocean dweller?

51 Makes it right 52 Pride parade letters 53 “Macbeth” spot descriptor 55 Division of the Justice Dept.

57 Buffalo’s county 58 Ordinary-looking fashion VIP? 60 Marketing opener 61 “What a shame” 62 Really like 63 Aren’t really, maybe 64 Nasdaq competitor 65 Like Vikings DOWN 1 Emperor after Galba 2 Bach works 3 Word associated with Sleepy Hollow

By Mark Feldman

4 Goof 5 Checkout correction, perhaps 6 “Point Break” co-star 7 Vision: Pref.

8 They’re meant for each other 9 Makes beloved 10 Informal discussion 11 Last book of Puzo’s “Godfather” trilogy 12 Bury 13 Alarm 18 “Trophy, Hypertrophied” artist 24 __ Men: “Who Let the Dogs Out” band 26 Follow 27 Rail system that services 20Across 28 Dahomey, since 1975 31 One at a time 33 Actor Damon 36 OPEC founding member

Tufts cares about your health.

We want to hear from you.

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During the week of February 19th Tufts will be participating in the American College Health Assessment survey.

Open the email: Help Create a Healthier Tufts.

Click the link and complete the survey.

Help make a difference.

Enter to win a great prize!

2/17/17

Thursday’s Solution Thursday’s Puzzle Solved

©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

37 Ring fighter 38 Pop-up items 39 As of 1937, he was the all-time N.L. home run leader until Mays surpassed him in 1966 41 Like many a successful poker player 42 Consumed 44 Keys

2/17/17

45 Unilever deodorant brand 46 Likely to change 47 Regard 49 Serling’s birth name 51 Ouzo flavoring 54 “Serpico” author Peter 56 Hightail it 59 “Star Trek: DSN” changeling

Friday, February 17, 2017 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

Sports

7

MEN'S SWIMMING AND DIVING

Tufts to take on 14-time champions Williams at NESCACs

by Bradley Schussel

Assistant Sports Editor

For 14 consecutive years, the Williams Ephs have held a monopoly on NESCAC titles. Every year since 2003, Williams has taken first place at the NESCAC Championships. Needless to say, the rest of the field will be looking to take down the defending champions, including the 2016 runners-up, the Tufts Jumbos.

The Jumbos will travel to Wesleyan to take part in the annual NESCAC tournament from today to Sunday. Tufts goes into this tournament ranked 14th in the country in Div. III. In those rankings, the team sits behind only two of its NESCAC rivals, as Amherst is ranked 11th and Williams is ranked eighth in the nation.

“We don’t put too much stock in that ranking,” coach Adam Hoyt said.

“However, it is nice when your team’s performing well to be recognized for that performance. That’s why I think we’re ranked 14th in the country.”

The Jumbos last competed on Jan. 28 against Middlebury. Hoyt believes that the weeks of rest have helped his athletes prepare physically for the NESCAC tournament.

“Having a couple weeks to rest up, mentally it can be challenging, but physically it is extremely beneficial,” Hoyt said. “Managing your expectations during that period is very important, so that your body and your mind can be ready to go.”

The coach seemed optimistic in his team’s chances in the NESCAC tourna-

ment, while he did acknowledge that winning would be no easy task.

“We need to be great. We need to be great in all aspects,” Hoyt said. “We’re competing against a lot of tough competition and it’s not just Williams. It’s Conn. College, it’s Amherst, it’s all the NESCAC schools.”

Standout junior Zachary Wallace echoed Hoyt’s sentiments regarding what the Jumbos need to do to take home the championship. Wallace added that having the right attitude going into the meet is vital.

“The number one thing we have to do is, as soon as we walk on that pool deck, we need to walk with confidence,” Wallace said. “We need to stand tall, we need to walk like champions, and we need to act like champions.”

While this is an important meet for every Jumbo on the swimming and diving squad, perhaps it carries even more weight for the team’s seniors. The Jumbos’ six seniors, including all three captains, will be competing in their last meet with the team.

Senior tri-captain Luca Guadagno was reflective talking about his final meet, but said he is excited for one last run with his teammates.

“It’s surreal for me,” Guadagno said.

“It’s the end of my swimming career, which is crazy to say, but I couldn’t be more excited to do it with this team. I wouldn’t have continued swimming this long if it weren’t for my teammates, and I’m really excited to see how these guys swim this weekend.”

Tufts holds several of the top NESCAC qualifying times in the events that will

COURTESY DAVID DECORTIN

Junior Zachary Wallace swims at a practice on Dec. 17, 2016. take place this weekend. This includes two entries from first-year Roger Gu, in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle events. Wallace also owns two of the conference’s top entries, in the 200-yard and 400-yard individual medleys.

In the 2016 NESCAC Tournament, Tufts finished in second place behind Williams, and was followed by Conn.

College and Amherst, which took third

and fourth places respectively.

Those three schools, Amherst, Conn.

College and Williams, appear to be the toughest competition for the Jumbos in this year’s tournament. Williams, of course, is the perennial NESCAC Champion, and Tufts will be looking to unseat them.

The NESCAC Tournament kicks off today at 10 a.m.

Tufts regular season success on the road key to postseason WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

continued from page 8 31. After their 34-point victory of Williams, Tufts blew past RIC 74-27, with their 47-point win margin being their largest of the season.

“We had a really great regular season and it’s definitely big for all of us,” North said. “Definitely getting those last two wins gave us some confidence back after losing to Amherst, and having a really solid two games going into the postseason kind of gives us that extra kick to keep going each day.”

After suffering its first and only loss of the season to Amherst in the closing minutes of the game on Feb. 4, Dillon believes that the loss will provide the additional motivation for the team in the NESCAC tournament and the upcoming NCAA tournament.

“We’re using the Amherst loss as fuel. It’s in the past, it hurts, it happened, but we’re using it now to fuel us into the post season,” Dillon said. “That might actually give us an edge into the postseason and possibly playing [Amherst] again.”

As the Jumbos head into the postseason, their 23-1 record is already an improvement off their 21-2 record at this time last season.

“I’m proud of our 23-1 record,” Dillon said. “Last year, going [into the] postseason our record was worse than that and I love that we went into the season striving for better and we achieved that, and not a lot of teams can say that they had that record this season.”

Tufts near-perfect regular season record seems even more impressive given that the team remained undefeated on the road this season, despite playing more away games than home.

“Overall, we had a lot of away games this season, more than normal, and in the beginning of the season at Skidmore we had some close games, closer than we thought they should have been, but throughout the season we definitely improved on overall play, focusing on getting off the bus, getting into game mentality and being ready to play at all times, whether at home or after being on a bus for five hours,” North said. “I think we’ve definitely gotten better playing at away gyms so I’m definitely proud of that, at being able to play our best basketball no matter where we are.”

The team’s experience on the road this season will be crucial this postseason. This Saturday’s home bout against Williams has the potential to be the team’s only home game of the NESCAC tournament. Regardless of the team’s showing at the NESCAC tournament, an appearance at the NCAA tournament seems likely for the Jumbos, but home court advantage is not a given.

Yet North is confident that the experience of the team, most of which played in the National Championship last year, and many of whom have been to the Final Four multiple times, will lay the framework for success in this part of the season.

“Our team is very experienced, [the] majority of people on the team were at the National Championship last year, and have Final Four experience,” North said. “Three of us, the seniors, have been at the Final Four every year so we definitely have a lot of experience not just in NESCAC games but tournament games where when you lose, you’re done. So we’re taking that mentality into account and kind of relaying that to the freshmen, that every game is just as important as the others.”

8 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Friday, February 17, 2017

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

Tufts relies on experience as team heads into postseason

by Alison Kuah Staff Writer

After capping off a 23-1 regular season, where the Jumbos finished 9-1 in the NESCAC, 8-1 at home and an undefeated 12-0 on the road, the Jumbos will begin their postseason against the Williams Ephs this weekend at Cousens Gym, in what could be their only home game of the NESCAC tournament.

“A factor [about playing Williams] this weekend is that we’re playing at home, and potentially our only NESCAC playoff game at home, in front of our family and friends, so we’re really excited to play at Cousens,” junior tri-captain point guard Lauren Dillon said.

Tufts played Williams in their final regular season NESCAC game just a week ago on Feb. 10, defeating the hosts 61-27 in a game where Tufts led from start to finish, leading by as many as 35 points at one time.

The Jumbos held the Ephs to just 21.6 percent shooting on the day and allowed just four points in the paint while forcing 26 turnovers by the hosts. The Jumbos’ characteristic defensive prowess was on full display against the Ephs, holding their opponents to six or fewer points in three of the four quarters.

At the same time, the Jumbos recognize that the stakes will be different playing Williams this weekend.

“We know that any NESCAC team on any given day can win a basketball game,” Dillon

said. “We know that maybe Williams didn’t give us their best game last week [but] they can just as easily come post season, show up and win a game. We know that every team is going to show up and give us their all especially because it’s postseason.”

Williams finished their regular season with an emphatic 91-65 victory over Bates, finishing 15-9 overall and 4-6 in the conference and averaging 58.7 points per game.

The Ephs’ offense will be led by senior co-captain guard Devon Caveney and junior Kristin Fechtelkotter, who averaged 13.1 and 10.5 points a game in the regular season respectively. The Ephs will be looking to rework their offensive strategy on Saturday after Caveney was held to just six points last weekend on 2-of-10 shooting while the Jumbos will similarly be reviewing tapes and making adjustments.

“We just played Williams so it won’t be too much new stuff — just watching film and seeing what we can improve on from our last game against them; we’ve been doing that a lot. [We’ve been] going over the scout like we always do before games,” senior tri-captain forward Michela North said. “It’s good because we only have one game this week and that makes it a lot easier for everyone.”

Tufts will be hoping to capitalize on the momentum generated from its last two games, against Williams and their regular season finale against Rhode Island College (RIC), that had been rescheduled from Jan. see WOMEN'S BASKETBALL, page 7

SITONG ZHANG / THE TUFTS DAILY

First-year Erica DeCandido manages a shot over Trinity defenders on Feb. 4, 2016.

FENCING

Jumbos rebound from eight straight losses, win five of six at the Cage

by Caleb Symons Contributing Writer

The Tufts women’s fencing team broke out of its early-season slump in emphatic fashion while hosting a Northeast Fencing Conference meet in Carzo Cage on Saturday.

Despite losing their first eight matches of the year, the Jumbos, buoyed by a strong allaround effort that highlighted their depth,

won five of the six contests in their final competition of the regular season before next month’s New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference (NEIFC) Championships.

“We fenced all of the toughest schools [earlier in the season],” junior sabre fencer Bridget Marturano said. “This [meet], we came in with a lot more confidence, knowing that we had gotten those schools out of the way.”

The team began the day with three con-

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY

Junior epee Grace Tellado in a match against BU at the Northeast Fencing Conference meet at Carzo Cage on Feb. 11.

secutive victories over BU (16-11), UMass (20-7) and Smith College (19-8) before being edged out by a talented, second-ranked Sacred Heart team (14-13). But Tufts immediately bounced back with a 23-4 thumping of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and a narrow 14-13 victory over its rival, Wellesley College, to end on a high note. The five victories vaulted the Jumbos to ninth place in the conference standings.

In a promising display of balance, every weapon had a winning record in the meet, led by the épée squad’s mark of 40-14. Junior épéeist Grace Tellado led the way with 12 individual victories — with a consistent 2-1 record in each of her six match-ups — while senior co-captain Chandler Coble added 10 wins, including 3-0 sweeps against BU and UNH. “We’re strong across all three weapons,” Tellado said. “[The épée] squad only lost to one school by one bout. It was really competitive, and that was [while] rotating in [first-years] who have only fenced for a couple months.”

Almost as impressively, the foil team recorded 37 victories in their 54 bouts, 13 of which came via the blade of sophomore Zoe Howard. Senior Juliet Hewes tacked on another 10 wins to pace the Jumbos. Howard’s performance improved her overall record to 21-11, which places her 11th in the league’s individual rankings.

Finally, the sabre team posted a 28-26 record on the day, led by Marturano’s 12 victories. The Malvern, Pa. native’s 23-7 record for the season (.767 winning percentage) makes her the highest-ranked Jumbo in the league (eighth) across all weapons.

Tufts’ successful performance could not have come at a more critical time, as the team was looking to rebound from the previous

week’s tough 25-2 loss to Harvard and 17-10 loss to NYU. The meet also represented the final opportunity to qualify for next month’s NEIFC Championships, and seven Jumbos took advantage of the chance to qualify.

The championship tournament, which is comprised of 14 New England- and New Yorkbased schools, will be held on March 4 at the University of Vermont. While the team had originally hoped to have at least nine members qualify to field a complete team, Howard — a first-time qualifier herself after having been knocked out of contention last year due to a bout of mononucleosis — still believes having seven Jumbos qualify is a success for the program.

“It took us a little while to get our footing throughout the season,” Howard said. “But as a team, we always have a positive mentality.”

However, the team’s success on Saturday has potentially larger implications than just qualification for the postseason — it justifies more recognition for a sport that is typically on the periphery of Tufts athletics, according to Tellado.

“We float in this in-between world,” Tellado said. “We are a varsity team, but we’re thought of more in line with the club teams. [This meet] shows other teams, as well as ourselves, that we are competitive with varsity programs that have a lot more funding and a longer history of recruiting.”

As the team progresses to the regional championships, the early season struggles seem to have been left behind.

“We’re going in with a really positive mindset after this last meet,” Marturano said.

“It’s not our typical format … but I think we’re going to have a fun day [without] too much pressure.”