Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Limited socioeconomic diversity strains lowincome students

Mother Tongue: where art and activism intersect see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 9 Tufts outduels Hamilton in NESCAC quarterfinal see SPORTS / BACK PAGE

SEE FEATURES / PAGE 5

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXIII, NUMBER 16

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Tuesday, February 21, 2017

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Student initiative looks to make Tufts a tobaccofree campus

by Emma Steiner News Editor

Members of Tufts Tobacco Free, a student initiative four years in the making that seeks to eliminate smoking on the Medford/Somerville campus, are beginning to take the next steps to implement their proposed policy by seeking feedback from the student body. According to organizers, the policy would be rolled out over the course of several years.

The group met with Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate last week to get its input on how to best implement the policy, according to senior Megan D’Andrea, a member of Tufts Tobacco Free. At that meeting, a number of senators raised concerns that the policy could end up unfairly targeting certain groups within the Tufts community.

“The overall goal of the policy is not to target individual smokers or to reduce individual smoking, it is more to prosee TOBACCO, page 2

by Daniel Nelson News Editor

Association, Jewish Queer Students at Tufts, the American Society of Chemical Engineers, Chabad and the Russian and Slavic Students Association. All Allocations Board (ALBO) recommendations for those groups passed by acclamation.

The body then heard an appeal from Tufts Synthetic Biology to attend a genetic engineering conference in Boston in September. The group requested funding for the registration fee, but Treasury policies do not allow funding for events and activities that do not take place in the same fiscal year as the request. This rule can be overturned by a 2/3 vote of ALBO, but it failed in a vote of 3-5. Synthetic Biology then decided to appeal to the Senate body as a whole, as TCU Senate’s decision would overrule ALBO. Synthetic Biology explained to the body that the group has tried other avenues to get the funding, but none worked. After explaining the situation, the body then moved into a debate and later voted. The proposition to fund the group $0 failed, so the registration fee

Timothy Edgar, professor of public health communication at Tufts University’s School of Medicine, died on Jan. 2 after a car crash while he was traveling in India. He was 59 years old.

Edgar had been on a health mission with Unite For Sight, a non-profit that provides eye care to communities around the globe. Early into the planned monthlong trip, Edgar passed away after surgery related to his car crash.

Edgar will be remembered for a lifelong dedication to issues surrounding public health, according to colleagues and friends of the late professor. Over a career spanning decades, Edgar is said to have defined his life and his work around a constant need to better his field.

“He had a contagious passion for life,” Nancy Rosenthal Stewart, a cousin of Edgar’s said. She described how Edgar’s personality, demeanor and “his warm, wonderful smile” made him an unforgettable figure.

Edgar’s career began in 1986, as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland. During his seven-year tenure, Edgar led an early charge into researching HIV/AIDS, and he wrote a highly regarded and controversial report on his findings, according to Stewart.

“It was a courageous book to write [at the time],” Stewart said, referring to the taboo that surrounded the disease.

According to Stewart, it was always Edgar’s personality to go against the grain.

Edgar continued to contribute to public health research at Westat, a Marylandbased social science research firm that worked closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Edgar directed a number of studies with the firm, and co-authored reports analyzing topics including racial discrimination in health care.

In 2002, Edgar joined the faculty at Emerson College as an associate professor. He directed Emerson’s Master of Arts in Health Communication, a collaborative program with Tufts’ School of Medicine that ran from 1994 through 2016.

see SENATE, page 3

see EDGAR, page 3

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY

A Tufts student smokes a cigarette on the Tisch Library Patio on Feb 16.

TCU Senate passes sanctuary state resolution, discusses supplementary funding requests

by Vibhav Prakasam Senate Correspondent

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate met last night in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room to discuss supplementary funding requests and a resolution supporting the Safe Communities Act, a bill that would make Massachusetts a sanctuary state.

TCU Senate President Gauri Seth opened the meeting by asking for committee updates.

The Administration and Policy Committee Chair Sylvia Ofoma said that the committee met with the student group leading the tobacco-free campus initiative, and junior Senator Arden Fereshetian is making progress on his dining plan resolution which passed last semester. The policy will be implemented next semester.

Fereshetian’s resolution called on Tufts to offer a 120-swipe meal plan, the opportunity to change meal plans until the course drop deadline and a more economical pricing system at Hodgdon Food-on-the-Run. The Services Committee is working on

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Timothy Edgar remembered as dedicated public health professor

getting reusable containers for the Pax et Lox Glatt Kosher Deli and Hodgdon, according to committee chair Kevin Gleason, while the Education Committee is picking finalists for Professor of the Year next week, committee chair Nesi Altaras said. The Education Committee is also working to introduce French and Spanish minors.

The Culture, Ethnicity, Community Affairs Committee is moving along with its projects to streamline and publicize Tufts Health Service’s sexual and reproductive health offerings and to better incorporate Residential Assistants (RAs) into consent culture conversations throughout the school year, according to Diversity and Community Affairs Officer Benya Kraus.

Additionally, Sophomore Senator Charlie Zhen is looking into removing residences from the Asian American Center, because he has heard of a lack of accessibility since the building is locked to those who do not either live in the center or work there.

Treasurer Chris Leaverton then took the floor to discuss supplementary funding requests. Requests came from Tufts Energy Group, the Queer Students

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, February 21, 2017

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

EDITORIAL

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Students warn that tobacco-free policy could unfairly impact marginalized groups TOBACCO

continued from page 1 mote overall health for this campus,” D’Andrea said. “As a research institution that supports healthy living, we do not want this campus to support smoking, and so it just makes sense to have an overall tobacco-free campus in which this behavior is not approved of.”

D’Andrea said that the policy would not take effect for another several years and that the contribution of the Tufts community is crucial to its full development.

“This policy is aimed to promote overall health on campus,” she said.

“We are hoping to do so in the long-term future. That being said, a major policy change does affect everyone on campus and so, because of that, we want to be sensitive to that and make sure that the policy is ready to be rolled out over a few years and make sure that it’s a gradual shift and not an overnight shift to a completely tobacco-free campus.”

Jennifer Allen, chair of the Department of Community Health and associate professor of public health and community medicine, said that the policy also aims to prevent those who smoke casually from picking up a more serious habit.

“In this college-age population, a lot of health behaviors are established,” Allen said. “Patterns get started, and especially with tobacco which is highly addictive, it becomes a pattern that tracks into later adulthood.”

Allen says that the tobacco product ban is actually one of the smaller parts of the policy. It would also provide smoking-cessation resources to all Tufts students free of charge and educational resources about the effects of smoking, according to Allen.

However, the policy raised numerous concerns within TCU Senate and among the student body.

Senator Sylvia Ofoma said she understood the concerns about person-

al health, but she expressed reservations about how such a policy might disproportionately affect different marginalized groups of students on campus.

“Whenever you have a drug policy, they tend to hurt marginalized groups the most,” Ofoma, a senior, said. “There have been studies shown that microaggressions and discrimination tend to drive usage of drugs … we’re really concerned about how it’s going to affect students.”

Senator Ben Kesslen was also concerned that the policy may affect specific students and university staff members, particularly LGBTQ and low-income people, in other negative ways.

“What a tobacco-free campus does is that it pushes people further off campus,” Kesslen, a junior, said. “A good example is that queer people are more likely to smoke, so what that means is that we’re pushing queer people further off this campus who might already feel like this campus isn’t for them.

Low-income students are more likely to smoke too … I’m concerned about what it means for workers on this campus who smoke.”

Senior Lauren Samuel worried that the policy is an imposition on students who have different value systems and that rules and constraints would not give students the type of care that Tufts Tobacco Free looks to promote.

“Bans are just peculiar to me as a way of looking out for the community, because to me it doesn’t seem like a ‘looking out’ kind of thing,” Samuel said.

D’Andrea addressed some of those concerns, saying that the group is aware of the disparity in smoking rates among different populations. She added that the group is looking to offer additional resources to help people quit smoking if they so choose.

“We are hoping to make sure that our policy is inclusive of all these groups and … that we are not trying to force people

to quit smoking if they don’t want to,” D’Andrea said. “If someone does not want to quit smoking, this policy does not affect their right to do so.”

D’Andrea said that the policy’s enforcement mechanism has not yet been set, but it would not seek to punish individual smokers. “[The Tufts University Police Department] is not going to be enforcing this policy,” she said. “We met with them, [and] we don’t want them to feel like they have to be the tobacco enforcers.”

Instead, educational resources would be made available and students could potentially report problems through an anonymous online form, D’Andrea said.

She explained that the group has been working with Tufts Health Service to provide free cessation resources and tobacco use counseling for those who need it.

Director of Health Promotion and Prevention Ian Wong said the goal of the policy is to support and educate students.

“There are certain people who will need mental health counseling and things like that, but for a bigger majority, sometimes they just need to know how to deal with their stress,” Wong said.

Allen also said that the group will be rolling out a student feedback survey next week in order to create a space for students to voice concerns and contribute to the formation of the tobacco policy.

According to Allen, this policy is part of a larger effort by the Tufts administration to promote student health on campus.

Another administration effort includes changing the nutritional standards in the dining halls, she noted.

“We want to promote health, and the culture of health means education, but it also means changes at the institutional level,” Allen said. “We don’t want to change people and certainly do not want to marginalize or shame any group at all. That would be directly antithetical to our goal.”

Events on the Hill: Week of Feb. 21 TUESDAY “Taking Control of the Permanent War State” Details: Gareth Porter, an investigative journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy, will give a talk about U.S. foreign policy and defense strategy, particularly under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Where and When: Anderson Hall, Room 112; 7 p.m.

Sponsors: Toupin-Bolwell Fund, Peace Action Chapter at Tufts and Tufts Faculty Progressive Caucus WEDNESDAY “‘Mele Murals’ with Tad Nakamura” Details:The documentary“Mele Murals,” which documents Native Hawaiian street artists Estria Miyashiro and John Hina and how their work relates to Hawaiian culture, will be screened. Following the screening, there will be a discussion with filmmaker Tad Nakamura. Dinner will be served.

Where and When: Alumnae Lounge; 6 p.m.

Sponsors: Asian American Center, Asian American Studies Program, Department of Anthropology, Department of Education, Film and Media Studies Program, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Student Affairs

and the Arts, Sciences and Engineering Diversity Fund “Open Call: Childhood” Details: Open Call, a student group that holds weekly reflective gatherings, is holding its eighth gathering for this academic year. This week, participants will reflect on their childhood memories.

Where and When: Dowling Hall Lounge; 8:45 p.m.

Sponsor: Tufts Open Call THURSDAY “Distinguished Speaker Series: Charlie Baker” Details: The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life will host a conversation with Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker as part of its Distinguished Speaker Series. Free tickets are available at the Mayer Campus Center information booth.

Where and When: Distler Auditorium (simulcast in Granoff Music Center, Room 155); 7 p.m.

Sponsor: Tisch College “JCC* x MSA Present: Executive Orders — Past and Present” Details: To commemorate the Day of Remembrance, there will be a screening of Tad Nakamura’s documentary

“Pilgrimage” (2008). Following this, Tufts students will share stories of their families’ experiences in the World War II internment of Japanese Americans as well as the post-Sept. 11 persecution of Muslim Americans.

Where and When: Alumnae Lounge; 8 p.m.

Sponsors: Japanese Culture Club, Muslim Students Association and Asian American Center THURSDAY TO SATURDAY “EPIIC Symposium: The World of Tomorrow” Details: The Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) is hosting the 32nd Annual Norris and Margery Bendetson Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) Symposium. More than 30 academics, business leaders and diplomats will participate in discussions revolving around the theme “The World of Tomorrow: Order and Chaos in the 21st Century.”

Where and When: ASEAN Auditorium, Cabot Intercultural Center; 7 p.m. on Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday Sponsor: IGL — by Joe Walsh

Tuesday, February 21, 2017 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

News

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Leader in public health communications at School of Medicine dies at 59 EDGAR

continued from page 1 Edgar joined the faculty of the Tufts School of Medicine in 2016, according to Aviva Must, chair of Public Health and Community Medicine for the School of Medicine. In an interview with the Daily, Must emphasized the strength of Edgar’s bonds to Tufts.

“He didn’t come to Tufts as a stranger; he came as a colleague,” Must said.

Even before Edgar joined the School of Medicine’s faculty, he was a familiar face to Tufts students studying public health. Ryan Kelly, a graduate student at the School of Medicine who took Edgar’s Application of Communication Theory to Health Communication class through the Tufts/Emerson program, described the class as one of his most impactful.

“I cannot begin to say how much I took out of that first class,” Kelly, who went on to become Edgar’s research assistant, said. “You could tell right off the bat, from day one, that he was super knowledgeable.”

Edgar’s dedication to his students was one of his defining characteristics, according to students, colleagues and family.

“He was one of those professors where the door was always open,” Stewart said.

“He was a mentor to so many students that walked through his door, even those that weren’t his.”

That effort also manifested itself in his rigorous standards as an educator, according to Professor of Public Health Janet Forrester, who taught along-

side Edgar at the School of Medicine.

“Doing well in Dr. Edgar’s class was a real point of distinction,” she said, noting that Edgar was always available to help his students learn and grow.

When Edgar ar r ive d at the School of Medicine, Kelly said that he began to work toward building a new graduate program for global health communications.

Kelly described the project as one of Edgar’s primary focuses in his new position.

Timothy Edgar was a prominent professor of health communications at “He was so excited about this program,” Kelly said. when he died, and his loss appears to “His passion was contagious.” have stalled it for the time being. Kelly According to a School of Medicine said that the program’s planning commitnewsletter, the program was, “the first to tee is “exploring other options” for now. combine a global perspective in health Many at the School of Medicine communication with a distance-learning described Edgar’s loss as a major blow to approach.” the community.

Stewart said that before Edgar left for “Edgar was certainly a glue, that, in my India, he spoke to her about his excite- opinion, held a lot of people together,” ment to return and work on building the Kelly said. program. It was still under development But Edgar’s trip to India was also seen

COURTESY OF AJA NEAHRING VIA EMERSON COLLEGE

Tufts and formerly at Emerson College. as a fulfillment of what many saw as his lifelong dedication to public health.

Stewart said that Edgar chose to go to India because he wanted a challenge.

“I want to go somewhere where the work is hard,” Edgar told Stewart before he left.

A memorial service for Timothy Edgar will be held on March 4, at the Arthur M. Sackler Center for Medical Education on Tufts’ Boston Health Sciences campus, according to Must.

Senate hears appeal for supplementary funding requests SENATE

continued from page 1 of $4,500 was put on the table and then objected to.

The body then moved into debate again. The total debate period lasted about an hour and involved much discussion over whether the group should be treated as a research group or competition team, if the group could receive funding from elsewhere, whether the

money will be used for current students and generally if would be valid to overturn the Treasury Procedure Manual.

The debate eventually concluded with a call to question, and the amount of $4,500 passed in a vote of 15 in support and 14 against with zero abstentions.

The body then moved into discussing a resolution written by Senator Olivia Dehm, Asian American Community Senator Jacqueline Chen, Latino

Community Senator Leticia Priebe and Senator Anna Del Castillo that called for TCU Senate, the Tufts administration and University President Anthony Monaco to support the Safe Communities Act. The bill, which is being considered by the Massachusetts State Legislature, would bar all law enforcement agencies in the state from working with federal immigration officials to help detain and deport undocumented immigrants. There was a very brief

question and answer period, after which the resolution passed with one abstention.

The body then moved back into supplementary funding requests, since they were put on hold by the appeal. Requests came from Baseball Analysis at Tufts and the New Initiative for Middle East Peace; the ALBO recommendations for both groups passed by acclamation.

The body then moved into a brief closed session.

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Features

Students, university react to study identifying high socioeconomic disparity at Tufts

5 tuftsdaily.com

Alec Whipple Red, White and True

In defense of Charlie Baker

“A

NICHOLAS PFOSI FOR TUFTS UNIVERSITY

Students enjoy the weather and work on the patio at the Mayer Campus Center on April 2, 2014.

by Liam Knox and Becca Leibowitz News Editor and Features Editor

On Jan. 18, the New York Times published an article titled, “Some Colleges Have More Students from the Top 1 Percent than the Bottom 60,” in which Tufts University was ranked 10th in the United States on the list of colleges with the highest wealth disparities.

The Times piece showed that this lack of diversity is a national issue among elite universities, as the percentage of student bodies from the top one percent of wealth earners in the nation has increased by more than two percent over the past decade, while the share of students from the bottom 40 percent has decreased by the same amount. Meanwhile, as the Times piece points out, during that decade, overall economic inequality in the United States also increased.

According to a recent study conducted by The Equality of Opportunity Project, which the Times used in its reporting, 77 percent of Tufts students come from the top 20 percent of wealth earners in the United States. The study also showed that Tufts has one of the highest median family incomes, at $224,800, among elite institutions and that about half of the student body comes from the top five percent of wealth earners in the country.

To many members of the Tufts community, the university’s lack of socioeconomic diversity comes as no surprise — Tufts is one of the most

expensive schools in the country, and economic privilege is so widespread that there’s even a popular Instagram account documenting the prevalence on campus of Canada Goose jackets, an item that costs upwards of $1,000 retail and has become a cultural indicator of wealth.

“It’s things like that that people don’t even realize are massive markers of the wealth that is concentrated on this campus,” sophomore Parker Breza said.

Perhaps more indicative than the jackets are statistics readily and publicly available through the Office of Institutional Research and Evaluation, including the fact that only about half of Tufts students receive financial aid from the university.

“If you look at all of our peer institutions, they’re bad, but Tufts is pretty much one of the worst,” according to Breza, who helped spearhead the Tufts Student Action’s #HaltTheHike campaign in November 2016. “There’s a massive problem between a very small amount of students who have very high [financial] needs, who live an extremely different life on this campus than the vast majority of students who are living an extremely wealthy, I would call it lavish, lifestyle.”

Sophomores Bethany Kirby and Charlie Zhen expressed similar frustrations, and said that their experience as low-income students at Tufts allowed them to be more cognizant of this disparity.

“It’s very alienating to hear and see the wealth being displayed sometimes, especially [because in] some of the communities we come from, a majority of people in our communities are impoverished, and then we come here and we’re a minority in that sense,” Kirby said. “It’s like a new world honestly. It’s a culture shock to see this wealth.”

Zhen said that the Times article’s statistics, rather than its overall message, are what stood out to him.

“My only surprise came from the actual numbers of [the article]. It wasn’t like, ‘Whoa, this place is rich’ — like, no s–t, right?” Zhen said. “It’s validating in some ways but also really upsetting.”

Low economic diversity persists despite university efforts Dean of Student Success and Advising Robert Mack said that during his time at Tufts, fostering socioeconomic diversity has become more of a priority for the university, and he expressed surprise at the statistics in the Times article.

“The university’s always working hard on our financial aid campaigns and working to have funding available so we can do as much as possible for all our students who are interested in coming to Tufts,” he said. “I certainly wouldn’t be able to explain why the numbers aren’t showing that way see SOCIOECONOMIC, page 6

wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation.” –Molière The moderate Republican is a dying breed.

Governor of Massachusetts Charlie Baker represents one of the last and most powerful proponents of this ideology. Recently, Baker, an anti-Trump Republican, has taken a lot of criticism despite his opposition to the current administration. Merely by being in the same party as President Donald Trump, Baker must stand trial for many of the administration’s decisions. However, Baker cannot completely oppose his own party and so must tread a thin middle line. A moderate in the truest sense of the word, Baker’s socially liberal and fiscally conservative policies deliver high approval ratings. However, there are those on the left who think Baker should be doing more to oppose the Trump administration, such as more strongly supporting the many protests in Boston since the inauguration. On the right, people criticize Baker for being far removed from his fellow Republicans. Although many people will likely support a Democratic candidate for governor in the next gubernatorial election, it would be better for the state to have a Republican governor in office during the Trump administration’s time in Washington.

Having Baker in office is beneficial to Massachusetts because of the higher potential for federal cooperation. As a Republican, Baker can act as a buffer between Trump’s administration and the people of Massachusetts. With a Democratic governor, tensions would be high between the state and the federal government.

With a Republican governor, the party identification would allow the two sides to work together more easily. States such as California, where Democratic Governor Jerry Brown has been vocally anti-Trump, have accomplished nothing but drawing Trump’s ire. Meanwhile, Baker’s stance so far has been to condemn Trump’s actions without jumping into the ring and participating in protests. This might make him seem cowardly, but when it comes time to make policy, it will be better to have a governor with a working relationship with Washington rather than one who has burned all his bridges.

Additionally, Baker provides a level of moderation in Massachusetts that is crucial in a federal system. Single party leadership within states tends to lead to trouble. An example of this is Connecticut, where Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy’s tenure has seen rising taxes, fleeing jobs and a failing economy. When one ideology dominates a state, there is little room for criticism. On the other hand, the balance provided by Baker and the Democratic legislature has led to recent success for Massachusetts. Our current federal government shows the danger of single party rule, and Massachusetts is better off with each party having a check over the other.

Baker is a conflicted standard bearer of the Republican Party. He is a member of the federal majority party but has cast himself outside of the Trump following. People have criticized him for refusing to strongly condemn Trump by taking more decisive action. However, Baker’s greatest asset is not his ability to march in the streets but rather to act within the system and be a leader for Massachusetts. Signing state legislation is a more effective weapon for the governor in his fight against Washington, and it is the one he has chosen to wield.

Aelc Whipple is a sophomore majoring in political science. Alec can be reached at alec.whipple@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Features | Tuesday, February 21, 2017

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

Low-income students feel underrepresented, underserved at Tufts SOCIOECONOMIC

continued from page 5 despite our initiatives.”

Greg Victory, executive director of the Career Center, agreed that the focus on socioeconomic diversity has increased over his 20 years in higher education, both generally across the nation and specifically at Tufts. He cited the university’s strategic plans as reflective of Tufts’s increased, consistent focus on socioeconomic diversity. “[What happens] as Tufts focuses more on these issues … is people become more and more aware of these issues,” Victory said. “We have always taken into consideration students’ financial need … [but] I think there’s been a much more sort of focused and concerted effort as you look at the university tackling these types of issues.”

Mack pointed to recent initiatives, such as Tufts becoming a QuestBridge partner, the creation of the Bridge to Liberal Arts Success at Tufts (BLAST) program in 2012 and the university’s 2015 decision to accept and provide aid for undocumented and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) students as evidence of Tufts’ commitment to making the student body more socioeconomically diverse.

In an email to the Daily, Director of Financial Aid Patricia Reilly outlined a few steps that Tufts would take to address the wealth inequality highlighted by the Times article.

“We are proud to be one of a small number of universities committed to meeting the demonstrated financial need of all admitted undergraduate students,” she said.

It is worth pointing out that meeting 100 percent of the financial need of accepted students does not correlate with efforts to accept more students with financial need. Additionally, many of the institutions identified in the Times article as having extreme wealth disparity meet all students’ demonstrated need.

These include Washington University, which the article listed as having the lowest socioeconomic diversity of any elite institution.

According to Breza, another issue with Reilly’s point is that the university’s process for calculating a student’s “demonstrated financial need” is not transparent and often results in students receiving less aid than they feel their economic condition warrants.

“One of our demands through #HaltTheHike is to increase transparency about how need is actually calculated and what a family contribution actually is, because … when I applied to financial aid, I was getting anything from a full ride to literally no aid,” Breza said.

“That’s because all these schools say they use the FAFSA and the CSA profiles, [which] they do, and then they use their own formulas to calculate different needs.”

Both Breza and Zhen pointed to Tufts’ 2009 revocation of its need-blind policy as a significant reason for the student body’s increasing lack of socioeconomic diversity.

“We have a policy that does look at how much revenue each student is bringing to this campus, which dictates who actually is and isn’t on this campus,” Breza said.

Mack said that the need-blind policy, which was only in place for two years, was canceled solely because the

funding that former University President Lawrence Bacow had received to make it viable ran out.

“We didn’t have that policy and then abandon it,” Mack said. “[Bacow] was like, ‘This would be great to do with this huge amount of money we just got,’ and then that money only goes so far, and so therefore we had to kind of pull back to the non need-blind practice.”

Mack said that while reinstating a need-blind admissions policy was likely out of the question due to financial concerns, raising money for financial aid remains a critical goal of the university.

But Zhen insisted that it was a question of priority rather than ability, pointing to multiple recent expenditures that could have gone toward financial aid for incoming students.

“I think that if they wanted to make Tufts need-blind, they could,” he said.

“If they figured that they didn’t need another science building but instead wanted to focus on improving life for low-income students and students of color, they could.”

Mack said that there is a growing sense of responsibility to improve and expand the opportunities available for low-income students, at least among administrators in offices concerning student life.

“I think [concern for low-income students] is there … I at least feel like this doesn’t get as far as it did without the right type of support,” Mack said.

However, Mack pointed out that neither he nor those he works with closely at the university have any say in budgeting.

“I tend to work closely with people who are invested in students. So we talk about how important students are and how money should be allocated, but we don’t also run the money or the budget,” Mack said.

Reilly also stressed that the university was troubled by the statistics in the Times piece, and that increasing socioeconomic diversity is a priority for the financial aid office.

“We recognize that there is much to do to make a Tufts education more accessible … as an institution that is committed to inclusion, diversity and equity, we care deeply about the gap identified by the study,” she wrote.

For Breza, university rhetoric holds little meaning if not accompanied by more proactive policy changes.

“Things like valuing diversity and social mobility are part of Tufts’ core values, but they’re not actually lived out, and they’re not instituted within our policies,” he said.

Breza also pointed out that Tufts lags behind other elite institutions that have taken steps toward increasing socioeconomic diversity.

Vassar College, for example, increased its acceptance of students who qualified for federal Pell Grants by over 10 percent in 2007, and it is now ranked by the Times as the most economically diverse elite college in the country. Meanwhile, Tufts’ acceptance of students on Pell Grants decreased between 2008 to 2014, according to the Times statistics.

“There are definitely things that other schools are doing … that we should be doing to increase that number. Even increasing the number of Pell grant students by three to five percent would drastically change what this university looks like,” Breza said.

What it’s like to be low-income at Tufts Zhen, a Tufts Community Union senator for the Class of 2019, has been coming to terms with the economic disparity at Tufts since arriving on campus.

“On my floor last year, next door to me was the kid of an economist,” Zhen said. “I’m from New York City, so is he, but he’s from Park Ave., which is a very different New York from me. Down the hall was the grandson of the former CEO of Exxon-Mobil and the guy whose dad runs Merrill-Lynch for all of continental Europe. It can feel weird in some ways.”

Breza also said that he has found it difficult to feel welcome at elite institutions such as Tufts.

“I think [the lack of socio-economic diversity] has a huge impact just on life in general … I personally chose to go on a lower meal plan this semester, which means I’m not in the dining halls as much, which means that … I don’t get to eat in the dining hall with my friends who are able to afford those higher meal plans,” he said. “So all these social spaces are also created.”

Zhen agreed but also said that he feels there has recently been greater awareness about the issue.

“I think it’s both that the political moment highlights this and that it’s always been an issue. At Tufts, there’s more of a conversation about certain privileges, being from certain backgrounds and the advantages that come with those backgrounds,” he said. “I think low-income students have felt discomfort before the election even started but that the conversation is a bit easier to have now.”

Zhen explained that as a low-income student as well as a student of color, he does not have access to spaces on campus that were designed by and for wealthy students — namely Greek organizations, which have historically been both racially and economically exclusionary. Zhen also tied the movement to abolish Greek life on campus to increasing concerns about socioeconomic diversity.

“How amazing would it be if we turned a space on Pro Row that’s a Greek life house into housing or a center for low-income students? How great would it be if we could reclaim this space that is so classist, so exclusionary, so inherently racist, homophobic and transphobic, and we reclaimed it as a space for students who have traditionally been marginalized by these groups?” Zhen said. “I think that’d be incredible.”

Mack, formerly an associate dean of academic advising, told the Daily that he has had many conversations about Tufts’ lack of socioeconomic diversity with the first generation and QuestBridge students he advises.

“I would say that it’s certainly an ongoing topic in conversation I have with students — the diversity on campus, the financial challenges students face on campus … I think this impacts people in very, very different ways and what else they bring to the table besides their socioeconomic background,” he said.

Mack added that students also often discussed the need for more resources dedicated to making life easier for low-income students who are already on campus. He said that his new position is part of a series of efforts the university is undertaking to address financial barriers students face at Tufts.

According to Mack, these efforts include increasing access to mental health resources, publicizing information about resources that already exist and instituting programs like Swipe it Forward to help high-need students with everyday needs, in addition to increasing their access to certain opportunities.

“We’ve identified a new fund to help students access opportunities on campus that they might have passed on because of funding issues,” Mack said.

“Those are things coming out of this office that we haven’t done at Tufts before … so I do think there’s been thoughtfulness, and I think there’s some financial commitment to it, and I think we’re doing some good stuff there.”

Mack highlighted a new initiative started last year by former Chief Diversity Officer Mark Brimhall-Vargas called Equity, Access for Student Equality (EASE), which over the course of the past year collected over 300 responses and comments from low-income students.

EASE is chaired by Linda Daniels, who was hired last April as a staff psychologist and liaison to the Africana Center, according to an April 26 Daily article.

Mack said he is optimistic that the EASE initiative will help improve campus life for Tufts’ high-need students.

“If you want to make massive changes in a university, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of momentum from a lot of different places, and I think this committee is one of the components in that process,” he said.

According to Victory, EASE is working to bring together disparate resources and support for low-income students, something that can prove challenging.

“The major challenge is coordination, for lack of a better term, sort of creating a onestop shop for students who have financial need,” Victory said. “I think we’re working toward that … to be able to coordinate all these financial resources for students so they can really go one place and sort of say, ‘Here’s all the things that I can apply for or the people that I can ask about helping support me financially through my college career.’”

Daniels was unable to respond to the Daily’s request for comment before publication.

While the university is taking steps to increase support for low-income students already on campus, these students continue to encounter challenges as a direct result of Tufts’ lack of socioeconomic diversity. Additionally, limited recent, substantive efforts have been made to expand access to the university for more low-income students.

Breza said that students are not always sensitive to the different needs and experiences of their low-income peers and that this can be difficult and alienating for students who are financially strained.

“There are so many students on this campus who, because they don’t have to think about it, aren’t thinking about it. And that does take a toll on a select few amount of students here,” he said.

For Kirby, it comes down to one question: “How do you thrive in a community that wasn’t built for you?”

This article is Part I of a two-part series on socioeconomic diversity at Tufts. Part II will address student efforts to increase university support for low-income students.

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Tuesday, February 21, 2017

ARTS&LIVING

Antonio Bertolino Art-à-Porter

A tribute to Alexander McQueen and ‘No.13’

Spoken word group Mother Tongue offers truth without apologies

T

oday, when people mention the name Alexander McQueen, one of the most celebrated and successful designers of the past few decades, many are reminded of his clothes that often featured skull prints and patterns. The British couturier, however, has left an incommensurable legacy to the fashion world that cannot and should not be restricted to a single print, which happened to enjoy exceptional commercial favor.

One of the most iconic designs McQueen sent down the runway was the look worn by athlete Aimee Mullins. On the occasion of his Spring-Summer show of 1999, “No. 13,” the fashion virtuoso custom-designed a brown leather corset, a white lace skirt and a pair of wooden prosthetic legs for the American sprinter, who was born with a medical condition that compelled her legs to be amputated when she was one year old. The wooden legs are carved with dreamy floral motifs, ending in heels that made Mullins 6’1” tall.

What I love about this look is the way in which it glorifies and celebrates a female body with features not commonly seen on runways.

The fashion industry constantly perpetuates ableism through its catwalks, so it was important that McQueen indirectly started the conversation on these ableist standards. The corset Mullins wore, which in fact resembles more of a metallic armor, elevates the model to a dazzling amazon, towering above the audience. Nonetheless, achieving this effect came at the cost of comfort; Mullins herself said McQueen’s designs were “hard and strict and unrelenting, as life can be sometimes.”

This shows that the Englishman’s intent was more to make art, rather than to create clothes that would sell well.

“No. 13” also featured what is arguably the one moment for which Alexander McQueen is most remembered. At the end of the show, model Shalom Harlow walked down the runway wearing a simple white dress, stepped on a circular platform that started rotating, while Harlow got sprayed painted on by two armlike robots. This moment was the main reason why Vogue rightfully referred to “No.13” as “not a fashion show” but “performance art.”

This last piece, which ended the runway show, inevitably draws comparisons with 1950s process art and Pollock’s paintings above all. The pattern created on the white dress by the spray paint was actually quite reminiscent of works like “Autumn Rhythm,” especially because the American painter was known to employ different kinds of paints in his pieces, including paint used to tint aircrafts.

It is also interesting to think of this final look in terms of artist and musician John Cage’s fascination with the aleatory elements of art making. If the model had moved in a different way on the platform, how different would the final outcome have looked? To what extent can McQueen claim intellectual ownership of the dress, and to what extent can it be considered a result of Harlow’s creative movement? Cage would probably argue that, since McQueen came up with the idea for the performance, he is to be given all credit for the artwork, but it is also possible to argue that the model had a big role in determining what the dress looked like.

Antonio Bertolino is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Antonio can be reached at antonio.bertolino@tufts.edu.

COURTESY DOMINIQUE CHRISTA

Rachel McKibbens (left) and Dominique Christina (right) make up spoken word poetry duo Mother Tongue.

by Setenay Mufti

Assistant Arts Editor

Poets Rachel McKibbens and Dominique Christina, who make up spoken word duo Mother Tongue, performed at Tufts on Friday at an event hosted by the Spoken Word Alliance At Tufts (SWAT). Long hailed for their talent, bluntness and social activism, McKibbens and Christina delved into a myriad of themes including identity, family life, past trauma and political and racial dissidence in America.

Although currently touring as the unit Mother Tongue, McKibbens and Christina are acclaimed poets in their own right.

McKibbens is the author of “Pink Elephant” (2009) and “Into the Dark and Emptying Field” (2013), while Christina is the author of “The Bones, The Breaking, The Balm: A Colored Girl’s Hymnal” (2014), “They Are All Me” (2015) and “This Is Woman’s Work” (2015). Both poets also hold championship titles at the Women of the World Poetry Slam. As artists, McKibbens and Christina complement each other well: Their poems find common ground in their commentaries on violence, repression and life as women of color (Christina is AfricanAmerican and McKibbens is Mexican).

In her opening piece, McKibbens said she came from her mother with “arms, legs and fists.” She came to the stage in a similar fashion. Much of her poetry is personal, recalling her childhood with an abusive father and an absent, schizophrenic mother.

The resonance, brilliance and violence of McKibbens’ poetry is striking. It is clear to listeners that she writes poetry for herself rather than an audience. In her performance of “Bruja’s Soliloquy,” she recalls her childhood belief that manhood was freedom: “I kissed the girls too hard, riddled my tongue with a father’s profanity because I thought that this was how to become a boy.”

But later in the poem she asks, “What greater burden, what more unconquerable revolt is there than that of a resurrected woman?”

She also honored her niece, who passed away before the age of two, in “Salve,” a poem that recognizes her grief but pushes unrelentingly for a lesson within it. She stared at the audience and asked, “How alive are you right now? … What haven’t you done? What are you doing? … The child is buried in the ground, her bones are winning, but your flesh is still yours.” Other poems of the night touched on attempts to run away from home, a white women posting her tattoo of a Mayan god on Facebook (“O, to be white in America, to wake up knowing every god is your god”), and “the time my father bashed my face in.” The brief moments of humor in some of her poems

are startling but don’t feel out of place.

Listeners understand that the life in her poems is in her perspective, with laughter one line and fury the next.

Christina’s poetry is similarly powerful, forcing her listeners to acknowledge history past and present. In her poem “Summer of Violence,” referencing the rise in gang violence in her hometown of Denver, Colo. in the summer of 1993, she describes burying friends, seeing young boys buy their own caskets in advance and recognizing the horror and grief that never went away. She asserts, “Your tomorrow has a bullet in it, ask Trayvon Martin. Your tomorrow has a bullet in it, ask Jordan Davis.” She gave a tribute to both Whitney Houston and her late neighbor Cojo, a Vietnam veteran haunted by the war and considering suicide but “only knew how to kill the innocent.” None of American history is left unscathed.

A Huffington Post writer contacted Christina, asking, “If 2017 was a poem, what would it be called?” The answer was an entire poem: It “can’t be called anything with life inside of it … 2017 is no poem. It’s a pipeline trying to breach an ocean.” Her words were a foretelling but also an appeal: “If there is any prayer left in this world, let it be what remains in our hearts.” In perhaps her best performance of the night, “Karma,” Christina gave a passionate account of her identity and purpose as a black woman facing a history of oppression, saying, “We become poets in an attempt to tether words to righteousness.” It is clear her righteousness is one written “in fire,” not pacifism. She spoke, “Tell ‘Massa he can call me Karma, I am refreshing the bones of a witch … tell ‘Massa I’m coming back.”

Both Christina and McKibbens agreed the pain they have experienced in their lives is very evident in their poetry, but their poetry is also a survival mechanism in response to that pain. They connect because of their ability to overcome their experiences and, in Christina’s words, “refusing to die.” Their lives are not about the future or the luxury of dreams but about living and thriving in the beautiful present.

Jukurious Davis, a junior on SWAT’s executive board, praised the poets for being “so incredibly blunt and honest and raw.”

“We as students and members of higher education are conditioned to express things in a prim and proper and polite way,” he said, noting that in contrast, Mother Tongue was honest and had “real conversations that need to be had.”

The poets echoed this need for honesty.

When asked by an audience member why they write, Christina shrugged and responded, “Because I’ll die if I don’t;” McKibbens shrugged and responded, “Because it’s illegal to stab people.”

9 tuftsdaily.com

Tommy Gillespie On Location

A

Sweden

t first glance, “A Man Called Ove” (2015) doesn’t offer much in the way of worldly social commentary.

Based on the 2012 novel by Fredrik Backman, it seems to the casual observer to be a rather simple tale of a depressed, widowed busybody — the titular Ove (Rolf Lassgard) — and his unexpectedly comical journey to a better life, facilitated by his friendship with an immigrant family that moved across the street from him.

However, Ove’s often sorrowful life story, retold in flashbacks throughout the film, provides a meaningful and frank social history of Sweden’s postwar years. Additionally, its discussion of immigration and its impacts registers especially relevant in light of the ongoing migrant debate taking place in Europe.

“A Man Called Ove” opens with the titular character losing his factory job. When Ove protests, noting that he has been working at the factory for decades, he is given only a condescending explanation of the effect of automation on industrial workers such as himself and offered a somewhat insulting severance package. As the film progresses, the plot travels back in time, telling the tragic story of Ove’s upbringing, young adulthood and his marriage to the recently deceased Sonja (Ida Engvoll). All the while, director Hannes Holm makes the argument that the rapid transformation of Sweden’s economy since the 1950s from the industrial to the post-industrial has left a generation of hard-working Swedes like Ove in the dust.

Though the country’s famed social safety net ensures that Ove will most likely not fall into poverty, the effect of the unfortunate changes in Ove’s personal and professional life become too much for him to bear, leading him to a series of suicide attempts.

However, Ove’s suicide attempts are continually interrupted by Parvaneh (Bahar Pars), an Iranian immigrant, her Swedish husband and their children. In the director’s portrayal of Ove’s interactions with Parvaneh, Holm offers his more obvious social and political commentary.

Throughout the film, whenever Ove’s gruff tendencies begin to get the better of him, Parvaneh or her family interrupt him and put him into a good mood, albeit reluctantly.

Whenever Ove tries to overstep his authority as the neighborhood homeowner association’s enforcer, Parvaneh and her daughters always show up to bring him back down to earth. If Ove, the son of a railway worker, is to be seen as representative of Sweden itself, then his relationship with Parvaneh makes the argument that Sweden’s is, at its heart, a nation that accepts and welcomes immigrants.

Ove’s friendship with Parvaneh is in itself significant within the context of Sweden’s current political climate because of the demographic Ove represents. As a white, middle-aged, working-class man, Ove is supposed to be one of the driving forces behind right-wing, populist, anti-immigration parties across Europe such as the Sweden Democrats. “Ove,” however, subverts this narrative when the titular character embraces Parvaneh’s role in their community and in his life, allowing her and her family to help him out of his depression and helping them in turn. It seems that Ove, and by extension Sweden, is the better for accepting immigrants like Parvaneh.

Tommy Gillespie is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Tommy can be reached at thomas.gillespie@tufts.edu.

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Tuesday, February 21, 2017 | Comics | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Comics

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Anita: “If I were on ‘The Bachelor,’ my title would be ‘cocaine consultant’.”

Comics

SUDOKU

SUDOKU

Difficulty Level: Getting a housing assignment your second year

Difficulty Level: Living on campus the full four years

Friday’s Solution

FOR RELEASE FEBRUARY 21, 2017

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 One in a bad mood 5 Diplomat’s asset 9 Vatican-related 14 Memorization method 15 Patron saint of Norway 16 Nimble 17 High-tech bookmark 20 African language group 21 Winter bug 22 Cupid’s counterpart 23 Safari beast 26 Mystery writer whose Baltimore home is preserved as a museum 28 Office gossip 35 Moved quickly, old-style 36 Meat inspector’s org.

37 “Awesome!”

38 Office coffee holder, perhaps 39 Hard-rock link 40 “O Sole __” 42 1965 march state: Abbr.

43 Gold or silver 45 Rainbow flag initialism 47 Gillette’s __ II razor 48 Right granted in the First Amendment 51 Bubbly prefix 52 Clapton classic 53 Gem from Australia 56 Private eye 58 Go around in circles?

62 “Et tu, Brute?,” e.g.

66 Pat down 67 Inbox clogger 68 Pamplona parlor 69 Sight or hearing 70 Wine city near Turin 71 River of central Germany DOWN 1 Bed with sliding sides 2 Author Jaffe

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By Bruce Venzke and Gail Grabowski

3 Mail-routing abbr.

4 Obviously embarrassed 5 Weigh station unit 6 Pub offering 7 Science Diet product 8 Nonstick kitchen brand 9 Sketching tablet 10 Shake hands on 11 Harbor strolling spot 12 “One more thing ... ” 13 Not as much 18 Industrial area of western Germany 19 Play for a sucker 24 Post-op areas, briefly 25 Margarita option 27 Ricelike pasta 28 Sound of a tree falling, say 29 Broadcaster 30 __-one: long odds 31 Kappa follower 32 Informed (of) 33 Pale purple 34 Stacy who played Mike Hammer

Friday’sPuzzle Solution Monday’s Solved

©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

39 Out of the wind 41 “The __-bitsy spider ... ” 44 Completely flummoxed 46 Easy-to-swallow meds 47 Flowering hybrid with thorns 49 Phased-out PC screens 50 Farm machine

2/21/17

53 Does in, mobstyle 54 Whittle (down) 55 Idi of Uganda 57 Big cat of film 59 Actor Pitt 60 Vegging out 61 Many an Ivan, in old Russia 63 Lute kin 64 Gained a lap?

65 “No more deets!”

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Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Opinion EDITORIAL

Raising the roof: Medford and Somerville’s role in the housing crisis Debate over what to do about housing shortages at Tufts often centers around actions that can be taken by the university. However, the cities of Medford and Somerville can play an important role in helping alleviate problems for their residents and the university.

It is important to note that the “spillover” of students from Tufts into nearby neighborhoods harms both Tufts students and Medford and Somerville residents. Students who cannot find on-campus housing due to low lottery numbers may have to pay large amounts of money that could otherwise have been covered by financial aid if they lived on campus. For the 45-50 percent of Tufts students who are on financial aid, these severe costs can force students into unsustainable financial situations in order to live off campus.

The influx of students also drives up rents in Somerville. In January 2007, the average Somerville home cost $363,000. Now it is $587,000, an increase of over 160 percent, and prices are forecasted to continue to rise 4.3 percent over the next year. Medford’s housing prices have increased as well, although not as severely. In January 2007, the average home cost $370,000; a home now costs $498,000. While there are many factors behind this increase, Tufts’ increasing enrollment certainly plays a role.

Landlords are able to raise rent prices knowing that there are Tufts students who can

afford them. This pushes out local Medford and Somerville residents. Additionally, landlords are able to provide low-quality housing and still make a profit as students need a place to live.

Neither students nor Medford and Somerville residents benefit from the current situation. Medford and Somerville should not wait to take actions that can help both parties.

In May, the City of Somerville instituted a progressive policy of inclusionary zoning, which essentially requires a larger percentage of new housing units built in the city to be affordable.

Reforms like this are an important step forward in alleviating the crisis, and should be lauded. However, more can be done. In a 2013 op-ed in The Boston Globe, Lawrence Kady, president of the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Massachusetts, suggests that cities in Massachusetts consider options such as flexible zoning, residential districts promoting starter homes and streamlining the local permitting process.

There are many solutions that the city has yet to implement. For example, Medford and Somerville’s zoning codes prohibit the university from creating buildings that are more than 100 feet high. Although residents of Somerville and Medford have criticized Tufts’ plan under the Residential Strategies Working Group (RSWG) to expand housing in Tufts-owned buildings along their borders with Medford

and Somerville, there is very little room on campus to build dorms. Allowing taller buildings is a practical solution that can help alleviate the crunch for space. This may not be well-received by residents concerned with the aesthetic and environment of the community, but the spillover problem is large and harmful enough that it must be addressed, perhaps at the expense of other aspects of life in Medford and Somerville.

Unless there is a change in Somerville and Medford’s zoning codes, the only way for the university to house these students is to expand horizontally, which will continue to exacerbate the problems currently faced by both sides.

Changing zoning codes and increasing the height limit would reduce the number of Tufts students living off-campus and lead to an easing of tensions between the university and its neighbors. Residents are rightly concerned about Somerville’s population density, but as long as Tufts enrollment continues to increase and rent increases with it, we must evaluate solutions that haven’t been considered as seriously in the past.

While rent increases and other problems can be attributed in part to the university’s decision over the years to increase enrollment, that should not stop the governments of Medford and Somerville from continuing to work on common-sense solutions that will help residents and students alike.

THREE-DAY WEEKEND

SHANNON GEARY The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community.

The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.

EDITORIALS Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily.

OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to oped@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions.

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

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by Nesi Altaras Looking In

Politicizing everything When a society is afraid of its government and when it faces constant strains and opposition from those in power, resistance permeates every sphere of public life. Movies, television shows, books, sports games and even gossip columns become avenues of politics.

After generations, culture becomes so utterly politicized that it becomes impossible to read a book or look at a piece of art from any decade without understanding the political context.

This formation of culture forces every public figure to declare where they stand all the time. Will they appear on the government supported channels?

Who will they give interviews to? Will they play soccer with the president? Will they go to his daughter’s wedding? All of these become important questions.

Many singers make their careers in the rich genre of “protest music.”

One such performer and the perfect representation of a political musician is Selda Bağ c an. An extremely prolific singer and songwriter, Selda Bağcan produced work that has been explicitly political. When famous opposition journalist Uğu r Mumcu died in a mysterious assassination, she wrote a song honoring him.

Of course, there are American musicians and athletes who are political.

However, when you think of the most famous public figures in America, their politics is not what immediately comes to mind. This is changing. The American cultural scene is becoming more and more politically-charged.

This is new for many commentators.

When Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem at a football game many commentators were shocked, and some on the right were furious. Some of this shock can be attributed to the novelty of political activism in the cultural space. The only other time mainstream American culture was as politicized as it is now was during the civil rights movement, when Bob Dylan wrote “Hurricane” and Olympic athletes raised their fists in Black Power salutes.

The direction American culture is taking is towards where Turkish culture is at now. We’ll see more actions like Kaepernick’s, or the Patriots players’ refusal to go to the White House and performers rejecting offers to appear at the Inauguration, not less. It should not surprise anyone when award-winners at the Grammys call out Trump personally. This is the culture of a society in desperation, and the desperate will take every opportunity they can to voice their opposition. This is a sign of deep polarization, and for at least the next four years, this will be the new normal.

So it will be of no use for Fox News to say “don’t politicize this” about anything, because everything will now be political. The institution of the presidency is not above the fray anymore because it has now become the Trump presidency, not the presidency.

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

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Padraig O’Malley, the John Joseph Moakley Distinguished Professor of Peace and Reconciliation at UMass Boston’s the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, on Track II diplomacy and his experiences in Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Iraq Manuel Muñiz, Director of the Program on Transatlantic Relations at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and Professor of the Practice at the Fletcher School, on innovation and disruption in the global economy Philippe Leroux-Martin, the director for rule of law, justice and security at the U.S. Institute of Peace and former head of the legal department of the International Civilian Office in Kosovo, on diplomatic counterinsurgency Paul Berkman, Professor of the Practice at the Fletcher School and an internationally-renown scientist, explorer, educator and author and chair of the Antarctic Treaty Summit, on climate change, security and the opening of the Arctic passage

For the full program and registration: 617.627.3314 and tuftsgloballeadership.org

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Sports

Breaking out of slow-paced start, Tufts takes down Hamilton

Sam Nowicki Teeing Off

Mashed potatoes

by Sam Weitzman

F

Assistant Sports Editor

Despite a slow first half, the Jumbos (20-5) turned it on in the second half to charge out to a safe 81-63 home win over the eighth-seeded Hamilton Continentals (16-9) on Saturday afternoon. The NESCAC quarterfinal victory earned the Jumbos a berth in the conference semifinals for a second consecutive season, but this year the team will be hosting the final two rounds of the tournament as the top seed.

Tufts started reasonably — albeit more slowly than the team’s high-paced offense is used to — putting up the contest’s first six points and holding Hamilton scoreless until a jump shot by first-year swingman Kena Gilmour with 14:26 left in the first half. The Jumbos opened up their lead over the next six minutes, with a three-pointer by junior guard Vincent Pace making the score 21-9 with 8:23 remaining in the period.

Hamilton, however, surged back into contention by making seven of its next eight shots. Sophomore swingman Michael Grassey capped the Continentals’ 18-4 run with a three-pointer that granted Hamilton a 27-25 lead with 2:44 left in the first half.

The two teams remained neck-and-neck for the rest of the period, with another bucket from Pace giving Tufts a slim 31-29 advantage entering the break.

During the first half, the underdog Continentals found success in slowing down the pace of game and disrupting the Jumbos’ offensive tempo. Most notably, Hamilton regularly ran down the shot clock before attacking the hoop, thereby decreasing the amount of offensive opportunities that each team had. The Continentals’ cause was also abetted by junior guard KJ Garrett, the Jumbos’ prolific sixth man, earning two quick fouls and thus having to sit out much of the first half.

Pace noted how effective Hamilton’s down-tempo style of basketball was.

“Usually, they’re a high-scoring team, but I don’t think they wanted to get to that run-and-gun kind of style that we play,” he said. “In the first half, they were really slowing it down [by] not really starting their offense until 15 seconds [were] left [on the shot clock]. And, you know, they got hot, so they were hitting some of their shots late in the clock, and it kept them in the game in the first half.”

According to senior tri-captain point guard Tarik Smith, the Jumbos later figured out how to adjust to the Continentals’ slow-paced strategy.

“They knew that we were a fast-paced team,” he said. “They tried to slow us down just to get us out of our offense and get us away from our strengths, but we were able to open that up in the second half. We started pressuring the ball more [and] started running them off the three-point line, so that helped us get some stops.”

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

ANGELIE XIONG / THE TUFTS DAILY

Junior guard Ben Engvall attempts a layup against Williams on Feb. 11.

The first 10 minutes of the second half remained relatively competitive, although Tufts slowly increased its lead, thanks in part to back-to-back sensational dunks by Garrett around the 13-minute mark that visibly fired up his teammates and the home court crowd. After the Continentals’ first-year guard Vincent Conn cut the Jumbos’ advantage to 55-50 with 8:09 remaining, however, Tufts shifted into high gear. Three Jumbos – Pace, Smith and sophomore guard Ethan Feldman – scored 17 of the game’s next 21 points, granting Tufts a 72-54 lead with 3:44 left in the game.

Hamilton did not threaten again, and two Continentals — Grassey and sophomore swingman Peter Hoffmann — fouled out in the waning minutes of the contest.

Pace described how the Jumbos’ adjustments in the second half broke down the Continentals’ strategy.

“We just had to lock down for a full 30 seconds on defense and not let these guys get open looks late in the shot clock,” he said. “[We had to] just be active, put some full court pressure on them with our point guards, and … try to speed them up on the offensive end.”

Pace led or co-led all players in four statistical categories, as he finished the game with 18 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals. Additionally, Smith scored 17 points and junior guard Everett Dayton posted 12 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Feldman contributed 15 points and three rebounds off the bench.

Meanwhile, Tufts held Hoffmann – who averaged 16.7 points per game during the regular season – to just 10 points while forcing the Hamilton standout to commit five turnovers and five fouls. The only other Continental to score in the double digits was senior guard Kyle Pitman, who notched 10 points and five rebounds.

Hamilton’s leading rebounder was firstyear guard Mark Lutz, who snagged eight boards in 14 minutes off the bench.

Tufts will next host Williams (18-7) at Cousens this Saturday at 2 p.m after the sixth seed upset third-seeded Amherst on Saturday. The two teams met in last year’s NESCAC quarterfinals, when a strong all-round performance by now-senior tri-captain center Tom Palleschi (14 points, six rebounds, five blocks and two steals) led the Jumbos to a 77-71 victory.

or the 10th consecutive year, Dustin Johnson is a winner. DJ cruised to five-shot lead, but it was as large as eight at some moments during the final round and it was never close. DJ blew away Riviera as he won for the first time this season in Los Angeles at the Genesis Open.

The tournament had an interesting vibe this week with Thursday, Friday and Saturday all having some sort of weather delay, forcing 36 holes to be played on Sunday.

Young up-and-comer Wesley Bryan finished T4, six shots back of DJ, missing a second place finish when his birdie putt lipped out on his penultimate hole. I would recommend we all keep an eye on Wes as the ‘Florida Swing’ starts up and the March to Augusta formally begins.

Before the week started, Jason Day was vulnerable in his world ranking for the first time in months. Day had been sitting at No. 1 for nearly a year and with a few poor starts this year, it was possible that with a win by DJ (formerly No. 3) and a poor finish from Jason, he could unseat him. World No. 2, Rory McIlroy, was not in the field this week and is yet to make a start on the PGA Tour this season.We won’t be graced with his presence (rib injury) until the World Golf Championships in Mexico.

Other notable finishes this week were Thomas Pieters (second) and Ollie Schniederjans (T8). These two young stars are on my watch list as well. Pieters broke onto the mainstream world golf stage at the Ryder Cup this past year.

The Belgian’s power, touch and 6’5” frame reminds many of a young Dustin Johnson.

Schniederjans, on the other hand, has yet to break through. The 23-year-old has won on the Web.com Tour, and had several PGA Tour starts as an amateur because of his stellar collegiate career at Georgia Tech. Keep an eye on Ollie this year, not just to see his game grow as he works to win for the first time with the big boys, but also to admire his beautiful flow, as the young man has turned down millions in endorsements because he refuses to wear a hat.

How will DJ fare the rest of the season? I’ve always thought he has enough power to wear down any major course, sans Augusta National. For whatever reason, DJ doesn’t seem comfortable with the Georgia Pines. The course is just too pure and perfect for him, as he isn’t able to separate himself enough from the rest of the field to overcome his shortcomings in his short game.

But with this early win and new No. 1 World Ranking, I anticipate DJ will carry a lot of confidence to this year’s U.S. Open at Erin Hills in Wisconsin. He will likely have a strong showing as he looks to defend his U.S. Open title at the massive course, measuring 7,823 yards. DJ’s game, power and precision off the tee is perfect for the traditional U.S. Open course set-up, so I expect him to win ‘Golf’s Toughest Test’ at least one more time in his career.

Sam Nowicki is a junior majoring in biochemistry. Sam can be reached at samuel. nowicki@tufts.edu.