Thursday, March 16, 2017

SOFTBALL

New library system cuts costs for textbooks see FEATURES / PAGE 5

Jumbos gear up for 14game road trip over break

Single and Lovin’ It: New tracks from Nicki, Alt-J, Lorde and Ocean see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 6

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

THE

INDEPENDENT

STUDENT

N E W S PA P E R

OF

TUFTS

UNIVERSITY

E S T. 1 9 8 0

T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXIII, NUMBER 32

tuftsdaily.com

Thursday, March 16, 2017

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Tufts administrators explain tuition increases for Tobacco Free next academic year initiative to survey Tufts community

by Elie Levine

Assistant News Editor

Tuition and fees for undergraduates for the 2017–2018 academic year will be $68,372, a 3.61 percent increase from last year’s $65,996. This projected cost, which does not include books and personal expenses, was announced in an email sent out on March 10 from Dean of Arts and Sciences James Glaser and Dean of Engineering Jianmin Qu. Administrators said the increase was needed to maintain campus housing, dining and facilities. Glaser told the Daily in an email that tuition does not provide all the revenue the school uses to operate and that the university also relies heavily on money from grants and philanthropy. see TUITION, page 3

by Jesse Najarro

Assistant News Editor

100 feet of a highway,” McLaughlin told the Daily. “[I-93] is not even 100 feet away, [it] is right next to the community.”

The link between sound barriers and better health has been explored by researchers at Tufts before. The Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health (CAFEH) group, which is co-chaired by Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine Doug Brugge at the School of Medicine, found that there is a correlation between highway proximity and risk of cardiovascular disease. These results were published through a 2013 article in the public health journal Environmental Health.

CAFEH recommended sound barriers as one method to alleviate these health concerns in neighborhoods bordering highways, according to a 2015 Daily article.

Brugge explained that air particulates are the primary issue associated with highway health. These ultra fine particles pour out of vehicle tailpipes and into the air, where they pose a public health threat to nearby individuals. Brugge said that sound barriers could play a role in preventing these negative effects.

“At least under some conditions, [sound barriers] reduce exposure, and it probably works best with locations that are close to the highway,” Brugge said.

Tufts Tobacco Free, a campus initiative that is looking to make the Medford/Somerville campus tobacco-free, plans to survey the Tufts community about its proposed tobacco ban, according to Jennifer Allen, a professor of community health and faculty consultant for Tufts Tobacco Free.

The idea for the initiative was conceived four years ago in an Introduction to Community Health course taught by Allen and materialized after several students expressed interest in working on a solution for limiting secondhand smoke on campus, according to Allen. Megan D’Andrea and Nicholas Nasser, both seniors, have been heavily involved in developing the project, Allen added.

The initiative, which seeks to ban tobacco on the Medford/Somerville campus and provide resources to smokers who want to quit, has been primarily focused on collecting data at this time.

“The major part of our work so far has been gathering information, learning about different perspectives on this. That includes gathering information about what resources are available,” Allen said.

In addition to taking an inventory of on-campus and Massachusetts state resources for smokers, Tufts Tobacco Free is currently working on a survey that will be sent out to Tufts undergraduates, faculty, staff and neighbors, according to Allen.

Students at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy have already been surveyed, according to Allen, and the majority remain unopposed or neutral to a tobacco ban. Concerns about the proposal center primarily around individual rights, marginalization and the effect on students’ mental health, Allen noted.

Members of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate expressed similar concerns about the proposal’s impact on marginalized populations that tend to have higher rates of tobacco consumption, including LGBTQ people, according to a Feb. 21 Daily article. Allen recognized that Tufts must work to ensure that people are not marginalized by the proposal, suggesting that Tufts provide cessation resources.

“The idea that this policy would make people feel even further marginalized was a concern, and that certainly is a concern,”

see HIGHWAY, page 3

see SMOKING, page 2

SEOHYUN SHIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

Ballou Hall, covered with snow due to the recent winter storm, is pictured on March 14.

Local official renews fight for sound barriers in East Somerville

NICK ALLEN / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

Interstate 93 (I-93) and the Inner Belt rail corridor in East Somerville and Charlestown are pictured on Nov. 21, 2015. The Mystic River appears in the middle ground.

by Daniel Nelson News Editor

Somerville officials have revived their push for the State of Massachusetts to erect sound barriers along a stretch of I-93 that passes through East Somerville.

Ward 1 Alderman Matthew McLaughlin has led multiple efforts by the Board of Aldermen to install the barriers between I-93 and the nearby neighborhoods. Most

Please recycle this newspaper

Sunny 34 / 16

/thetuftsdaily

recently, McLaughlin introduced a resolution at the Jan. 12 Board of Aldermen meeting calling for sound barriers.

McLaughlin considers sound barriers a necessary part of Somerville’s health infrastructure. He explained that they would help alleviate the pollution concerns that he said were directly linked to I-93.

“There are studies that show that sound barriers can help reduce air pollution by up to 50 percent in areas that are within

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Thursday, March 16, 2017

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

EDITORIAL

Jei-Jei Tan Miranda Willson Managing Editors Joe Walsh Executive News Editor Ariel Barbeiri-Aghib News Editors Zachary Hertz Gil Jacobson Robert Katz Liam Knox Daniel Nelson Catherine Perloff Emma Steiner Hannah Uebele Charles Bunnell Assistant News Editors Emily Burke Daniel Caron Aneurin Canham-Clyne Juliana Furgala Elie Levine Natasha Mayor Jesse Najarro Minna Trinh Costa Angelakis Executive Features Editor Becca Leibowitz Features Editors Jake Taber Emma Rosenthal Emma Damokosh Assistant Features Editors Zach Essig Elie Levine Jessie Newman Sean Ong Hermes Suen Grace Yuh Eran Sabaner Executive Arts Editor John Gallagher Arts Editors Cassidy Olsen John Fedak Assistant Arts Editors Libby Langsner Setenay Mufti Paige Spangenthal Anita Ramaswamy Executive Op-Ed Editor Stephen Dennison Cartoonists Shannon Geary Noah Kulak Lydia Ra Miranda Chavez Editorialists Julia Faxon Hannah Kahn Lena Novins-Montague Lanie Preston Madeleine Schwartz Daniel Weinstein Eddie Samuels Executive Sports Editor Yuan Jun Chee Sports Editors Maddie Payne Maclyn Senear Liam Finnegan Assistant Sports Editors Savannah Mastrangelo Brad Schussel Sam Weidner Sam Weitzman Ray Bernoff Executive Photo Editor Margot Day Staff Photographers Scott Fitchen Lilia Kang Max Lalanne Rachael Meyer Vintus Okwonko Zachary Sebek Alexis Serino Seohyun Shim Angelie Xiong Ezgi Yazici Sitong Zhang Ezgi Yazici Executive Video Editor Olivia Ireland Executive Video Admin.

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Tufts officials say proposed smoking ban would be enforced voluntarily SMOKING

continued from page 1 Allen said. “I think we have a lot of other really important work to do on this campus that doesn’t involve tobacco.”

According to data from the 2015 National College Health Assessment survey, the smoking rate of Tufts undergraduates was one percent, but the rate for international students was seven percent, Allen said. The rate for LGBTQ students on campus was fairly low, according to Allen.

“We did try to look at data across groups and the smoking rates [among LGBTQ students] are so low overall that we couldn’t see any statistically significant variability,” Allen stated.

Allen said she hopes the ban will be implemented in a way that does not push people off campus.

“I think that tobacco is not going to be the thing that marginalizes [these groups].

What we’re seeing for Tufts is that this whole thing would be rolled out over a number of years and that there will be time for people to get whatever supports they need in place for this,” Allen said. “[Tufts University Police Department (TUPD)] is not going to be the tobacco police.”

People have expressed concern about how the ban will be enforced, according to Allen.

She explained that she does not want the ban to be punitive, and said enforcement would be centered around voluntary compliance. Kevin Maguire, director of the Department of Public and Environmental Safety (DPES), which oversees TUPD, confirmed that enforcement would not be punitive.

“If DPES were to receive a call for service relative to a smoker in violation of a non-smoking law or policy, we would seek voluntary compliance from the person in violation, as we have no formal authority to enforce

smoking laws,” Maguire told the Daily in an email. “Our students, faculty and staff could also assist if they were comfortable in doing so, by reminding the person in violation of the law/rules and asking that they smoke in designated areas only.”

DPES was approached by Tufts Tobacco Free in 2016 and agreed to assist with the initiative. When asked about how DPES can improve the practicality of the initiative, Maguire stated that collecRAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY tive responsibility is essential A Tufts student smokes a cigarette on the Tisch Library Patio to successfully enforcing a on Feb. 16. future ban.

“The practicality of this initiative depends [more] detailed proposal.” on our entire community, not just one departJacqueline Cabral, a biology and comment. Students, faculty and staff have a munity health major, supports the intention responsibility to comply with policy made by behind the ban but remains skeptical about the university,” Maguire wrote. “If a smoke- its implementation. free policy were adopted, we would collec“I can understand the intention behind tively create the expectation that both smok- this ban. Being a community health major, ers and nonsmokers would cooperate in the I understand that this type of intervention implementation of the policy in an atmo- is theoretically the most effective [way] to sphere of mutual respect and consideration.” reduce the effects of secondhand smoke.

Tufts Tobacco Free has also been con- From this perspective, I actually support the ducting research on how a tobacco ban has ban,” Cabral, a sophomore, said. been enforced at other institutions, such as However, Cabral believes resources for Northeastern University and the Tufts Boston smoking assistance should be offered to marcampus, according to Allen. ginalized communities with higher smoking First-year Eric Park said he is not opposed rates, and that those communities need to be to the idea of a smoking ban for health pur- consulted. poses, but he noted that proponents of the “It must acknowledge those that will policy should consider the rights of smok- be marginalized by actually providing the ers such as himself, particularly by designat- resources needed or making areas where ing on-campus smoking areas. people can go and smoke,” Cabral said. “So “I think, in general, it’s a proposal for the maybe the next step should be to talk to differwhole good,” Park said, “But at the same time ent communities and see what they need and I think if they’re going to do it, they need a then implement that.”

UCLA researcher speaks about DNA testing as a tool for white supremacists

by Daniel Caron

Assistant News Editor

Joan Donovan, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Society and Genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles delivered a lecture about the impact of DNA ancestry tests on the perspective of white supremacists yesterday afternoon in the Alumnae Lounge.

The lecture, titled “From One Drop to One Percent,” was sponsored by the Science, Technology and Society Program, the Department of Anthropology, the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program.

Donovan began the lecture by explaining her research methods. Donovan said that her research team analyzed posts on internet message boards dedicated to white supremacy.

“We started this a year and a half ago, and since then, for about … 40 hours a week, I have been deeply embedded in white supremacist message board — reading posts and looking around,” she said.

Donovan said that her research into white supremacy has long been relevant but is especially significant in today’s political climate.

One active message board that her team studied was initially formed in the 1990s.

“These people never really went away.

White supremacy has been part of American life and American culture for a very long time,” she said.

She also stressed that the white nationalist cause is distinct from other ethnicity-based movements.

“White nationalist identity politics do not

strive for justice, equality, fairness and a recognition of meaningful differences, which are the hallmarks of contemporary identity movements,” she said.

Addressing the topic of DNA ancestry testing, Donovan presented a specific example of Craig Cobb, a well-known white nationalist who was challenged to take a DNA test on a television talk show in 2013.

“Because he was a white supremacist, they challenged him to take a DNA ancestry test to prove his whiteness,” she said.

“And it came back that he’s 14 percent SubSaharan African.”

She then addressed that DNA testing is somewhat flawed due to low sampling of an individual’s DNA. “It’s not uncommon for someone’s results to come back being something that they don’t think that they are, but at the same time it’s not uncommon for things to come back as SubSaharan African if they used what are known as cheap tests, that don’t test … a wide swath of your DNA,” she said.

This margin of error allows people to either disregard the data or question its sources, and thus people seek out results that better conform to their expectations, according to Donovan. Results that prove whiteness, in turn, allow them to gain acceptance in the white nationalist community.

“Craig decided that even though he thought it was junk science, and that the show had given him a junk test, that he would go and get another ancestry test done, and … post these results to the message board,” Donovan said. “It lists him as 100 percent European.”

In addition, according to Donovan, researchers have identified flaws in DNA test-

ing when collecting samples, which leads to a disparity in the information that is available for these tests on certain databases.

“There are issues with the way in which we stratify genetic science in health databases and crime databases,” she said. “So in health databases, [the researchers wrote that] Latinx and Asian, African and Aboriginal are underrepresented, whereas Latinx and African American are overrepresented in crime databases.”

White supremacy movements rely on a concrete definition of what it means to be white, according to Donovan, and these tests have provided an additional vehicle for them to define their movement.

She also explained that white supremacists interpret results that do not conform with their beliefs by concealing the information or redirecting attention away from it.

She concluded by putting the white nationalist movement into the context of President Donald Trump’s campaign and administration.

“In our interpretation, Trump’s campaign was responding to the white nationalist cause’s call for isolation and protection from what they perceive to be internal and external threats to safety and the fracturing of whiteness,” she said.

She also spoke about the threat posed by the American Health Care Act, which is the proposed Republican replacement of the Affordable Care Act. She said that it could reduce the privacy of genetic testing, enhancing white supremacist causes.

“Just like the one drop rule, these new policies … don’t just harm black people. They also harm poor whites, and many marginalized others,” she said.

Thursday, March 16, 2017 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

News

3

Students say tuition increases will weaken Tufts' socioeconomic diversity TUITION

continued from page 1 “We have taken aggressive steps to control costs and to minimize increases while still providing a first-rate educational experience. Certain costs, however, continue to rise faster than revenues and fundraising, making a tuition increase necessary,” Patrick Collins, executive director of public relations, told the Daily in an email.

In response, members of Tufts Student Action (TSA) contend that administrators have not provided sufficient justification for the increase and that continually rising costs of attendance will undercut Tufts’ socioeconomic diversity. The undergraduate cost of attendance at Tufts has risen every year in the past decade, according to the university’s Fact Book. Between the 2011–2012 and the 2017–2018 academic years, the cost of attendance has increased by nearly $14,000.

According to Glaser, part of the reason for this year’s increase is that the university’s budget is under heightened pressure.

Glaser explained that the new Science and Engineering Complex, the Central Energy Plant (CEP) and the Henry and Lois Foster Hospital for Small Animals on the Grafton campus have proven expensive to build and maintain. He added that Tufts’ recent acquisition of the SMFA also resulted in additional costs to the university.

According to Glaser, the university is also renovating housing and is making efforts to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in its renovations. According to Collins, new buildings and multi-year renovation processes caused a 17 percent rise in facility expenses since last year.

Glaser added that tuition dollars help fulfill the demands of new union contracts for lecturers. Collins explained that tuition dollars contribute to a 2.5 percent increase in salaries and benefits for faculty, which are necessary for the university to maintain a high-quality workforce in a competitive market.

“We recognize that additional tuition places a burden on students and their families and attempt to keep the increase as small as possible while still meeting our growing commitments,” Glaser said. “It’s a difficult balance to achieve.”

According to Glaser, the Tufts administration has controlled costs this year by cutting programs, consolidating administrative departments and shrinking class sizes. Glaser also said Tufts is investing in projects that will save

the university money in the future. For example, the CEP will supply the university with energy-efficient power and will make up its initial investment by 2027, according to Glaser.

Collins said that the university is committed to ensuring cost-effectiveness and limiting future tuition increases. He cited the efforts to standardize purchasing across the university, negotiate savings contracts and request prices from the vendors that sell goods and services to Tufts.

Collins explained that the university uses reverse auctions to allow suppliers to compete for the university’s business in the format of an auction. He added that the most recent reverse auction will result in savings of 20 percent on computers.

TSA has responded to the tuition hike by reasserting its #HaltTheHike campaign, which released its list of demands — including a temporary halt to the increasing cost of tuition and more community input on how funds are allocated — last November.

Students in TSA are frustrated not only by the cost of an education at Tufts, which already ranks as one of the most expensive schools in the United States, but also by the email’s content and delivery, includ-

ing the fact that it did not break down the specific expenses that justify the increase.

They were also disappointed by the timing of the email.

“This email was sent out on a Friday afternoon, and it was during a time when students are busy with midterms and preparing to leave for spring break, meaning that the students have limited ability to react or respond,” TSA wrote in their press release.

According to the press release, TSA is fighting for a “tuition freeze,” which would guarantee that students in each class year pay the same tuition each year they attend Tufts until they graduate. TSA explained that under this plan, tuition hikes would only affect each incoming class.

“We demand to know where our tuition dollars go and why Tufts is not prioritizing finding a way to freeze or lower tuition,” TSA member Michelle Delk wrote in the press release.

Chief among TSA’s concerns was the potential threat the tuition hike poses to socioeconomic diversity at Tufts.

“We demand to know … why Tufts is not prioritizing finding a way to freeze or lower tuition,” Delk, a first-year, wrote.

Glaser said the administration will work to ensure that Tufts remains accessible to students from a wide variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.

“The university has a social mission to serve a broad swath of society,” he said.

“We also believe that a diverse community is important to the education we provide to all of our students.”

According to Glaser, a large portion of tuition dollars are used for financial aid, and Tufts raises money through philanthropy to make up the rest. Glaser said financial aid is a priority for the administration and its alumni and that additional dollars are put into endowments to ensure that Tufts offers financial aid in the future.

Still, some students argue that Tufts’ rhetorical commitment to diversity does not hold up in practice.

“Tufts continues to ignore the needs and concerns of its low-income and high need students, while touting its principles of inclusion and social justice,” TSA member Parker Breza, a sophomore, wrote in the press release. “The administration needs to live up to its alleged values and make this university truly acceptable to people regardless of socioeconomic status.”

Undergraduate Tuition Fees’ Growth Rate Breakdown 8%

6%

4%

2%

0%

‘05 -’06

‘06 -’07

‘07 -’08

‘08 - ’09

‘09 - ’10

‘10 - ’11

‘11 - ’12

‘12 - ’13

‘13 - ’14

‘14 - ’15

‘15 - ’16

- 2%

- 4%

Tuition

Meal Plan

Activity Fee

Residence Hall

Health Services Fee

Total

SOURCE: TUFTS UNIVERSITY FACT BOOK 2015-2016

GRAPHIC BY ASTRID WENG

Resarchers push for sound barriers in East Somerville to decrease pollution levels HIGHWAY

continued from page 1 Brugge added that factors such as airflow and wind could deflect dangerous particulates over and past the barrier, and expose more distant locations to the pollutants.

The fight for sound barriers stretches beyond pollution problems to the question of the ongoing Green Line Extension project, which will bring the Green Line to Somerville and Medford, according to McLaughlin. He noted that East Somerville has disproportionately high levels of cancer, which he attributed to highway pollution.

“We are owed the Green Line Extension from a lawsuit that was built around the East Somerville pollution,” McLaughlin said.

Originally, the Green Line Extension would have solved the pollution issue by cutting down on highway traffic,

McLaughlin explained. He said that is no longer the case because traffic has increased since then.

“Now, even if we get the Green Line, its not going to mitigate the pollution that is happening in East Somerville,” he said.

“So we need sound barriers to address the original problem.”

Another potential issue for the sound barriers is determining where to put them, according to Ellin Reisner, president of the Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership and co-chair of CAFEH. “One of the things we learned [in CAFEH] is that you can’t just build a barrier without thinking about what the location is,” Reisner said, explaining that Massachusetts Highway 38 runs adjacent to I-93 in East Somerville. “If you were to put up the sound barriers [along I-93], you would still get pollution from route 38.”

Reisner added that sound barriers would help to mitigate some of the air and noise pollution coming from the interstate.

McLaughlin said that the the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) would be responsible for installing sound barriers. He said that MassDOT has rejected past attempts by the Board of Aldermen because sound barriers for pollution mitigation are outside of MassDOT’s regulatory power. “[MassDOT ] told [the Board of Aldermen] that it’s not in their regulations to build sound barriers for the purposes of air pollution because it’s not recognized to them as a legitimate purpose [for sound barriers],” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin said that, even if MassDOT did recognize their use, the sound barriers would not likely be erect-

ed in East Somerville any time soon. He explained that the department maintains a list of locations scheduled to receive sound barriers based on highway construction.

“You’ll see a neighborhood get sound barriers because they’re reconstructing the highway,” McLaughlin said. “Until that happens, we don’t get it. And we’re not even on the list.”

McLaughlin said that the success of this renewed push for East Somerville sound barriers will again be ultimately determined by MassDOT. He said his plan to get around them depends on his ability to garner support locally and statewide. During the Jan. 12 Board of Aldermen meeting, he urged local residents to put pressure on state officials.

“We just need MassDOT to shake off this bureaucratic attitude that’s killing people — literally killing people [in East Somerville],” McLaughlin said.

4

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Thursday, March 16, 2017

Features

Tisch Library pilots new textbook reserve system, allows use outside library

5 tuftsdaily.com

Rebecca Redelmeier Tufts by Numbers

Snow day calculations exposed!

M

SEOHYUN SHIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

A student checks out a book through the Tisch textbook reserve system, which allows students to borrow textbooks for up to four hours, on March 14.

by Natasha Mayor

Assistant News Editor

As of last semester, Tisch Library and the Office for Student Success and Advising have been piloting a textbook reserve system intended to reduce the financial burden that textbooks create for students.

Through this system, textbooks for a variety of classes are put on reserve for any student to borrow. According to Martha Kelehan, head of scholarly communications and collections at Tisch Library, textbooks typically can be rented out for four hours, and as of this semester, students can also use them outside of the library.

Laura Wood, director of Tisch Library, explained that while the system was initially intended to benefit students who struggle to purchase expensive textbooks, the library inherently serves everyone in the community.

“Everything we make available, we make available to everybody, whenever we can,” Wood said.

Wood added that this system is not intended to discourage people from buying textbooks. The goal is simply to make sure that an inability to access textbooks does not negatively affect students.

“We are trying to make sure that every student can be successful and that access to course material on a regular basis isn’t a barrier to them getting their work done,” Wood said.

Kelehan said that there are a variety of factors involved in choosing which course textbooks are put on reserve.

“We used classes that we knew were high [enrollment and] first-year enrollment,” Kelehan said. “We picked classes that are the gateway classes, classes that you have a lot of non-majors in.”

Kelehan explained that pricing is also considered when choosing textbooks for the reserve, pointing out that having a $300 textbook would typically be more impactful than a $50 textbook.

Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences James Glaser said the university wants to help students battle the high costs associated with attending Tufts, including the costs of textbooks.

“Families have to sacrifice to send their children to a university,” Glaser said. “We want to do all that we can to ease that burden.”

Professor David Proctor in the Department of History also said that he thinks textbook prices are unnecessarily high and had asked the library for his courses to be added to the new reserve system as soon as he heard about it. Two of his European history survey courses were approved to be included in the reserve.

“This program is great because I think it really does address a need,” Proctor said. “It’s a small way, but at least it’s a little something that blunts what can be a really pricey bill every semester when it comes to textbooks.”

According to Proctor, the library had a similar reserve system 15 years ago, in which professors would have to send a list of their textbooks to the library to be put on reserve. Proctor explained that when the program ended due to the need to redistribute resources, difficulties arose for students and professors alike.

“You’d have to go out and buy your own version of the textbook to put on reserve for your students or hope that the publisher would be willing to give you an extra desk copy to use as a reserve copy,” Proctor said.

According to Wood, to fund the current program, the library had initially intended to reallocate funds that usually go toward building the library’s permanent collections. However, Glaser said he reached out to alumnus Steve Eisenstein (LA ’84), who had previously expressed interest in contributing to a project such as this one. “[Eisenstein] believes in the social mission of the school and our respon-

sibility to educate a broad and diverse group of students,” Glaser said. “He very graciously agreed that some of his philanthropy would go to this project.”

Kelehan and Wood said that there are a variety of reasons students want to borrow books from the textbook reserve. While some quantitative data has already been accumulated, they said that the library intends to send out a survey later this semester to gather some qualitative data about students’ use of the program as well.

Some students said that they heard about the textbook reserve system from their professors and used the reserved books before their own copies had arrived. First-year Sami Heyman used the system while waiting for her Spanish 22 textbook to arrive in the mail and commented on the ease with which she was able to use the system.

“I was happy with how simple it was,” Heyman said. “All the textbooks that I needed were there, which was nice. I just looked up the call numbers on the library website and then told them to the person.”

First-year Kirt Thorne said that he used the reserve system because he preferred the physical textbook to the eBook version he had purchased.

“Last semester when I took EC 5, I used it pretty much every time I needed to study or take notes from the book,” Thorne said.

While the textbook reserve system is still in its pilot stages, Wood said that there have been no indications so far that the program will not continue into the future. she added that the email blast sent on Sept. 7, which included information about the textbook reserve system, has the highest email opening rate of any email the library has sent to date.

“Textbooks are a thing that catches students’ attention,” Kelehan said.

“People feel the textbook issue. It’s really personal.”

onday afternoon, I sat in the Mayer Campus Center refreshing snowdaycalculator.com, looking up “school closings Boston area,” my fingers crossed tightly, hoping that this wacky March temperature would grant us our second full snow day of the semester.

I wondered what kind of calculations went into judging whether school would be closed for a storm and what statistics exist nationwide about snow day closings.

In 2014, Reddit user Alexandr Trubetskoy recorded the different snowfall amounts across the country that merited a snow day on an informational map. According to the data that he collected, here in Massachusetts, an average of 12 inches of snowfall can merit a snow day. Yet, in southern states such as North Carolina and Tennessee, any small amount of snow can cause a school closing.

My own snow day hopes came true when eight-to-12 inches of snow was expected to accumulate in Medford on Tuesday. This merited a snow day not just for Tufts but for all high school and college students in the area. On our previous snow day this semester on Feb. 9, the snowfall amount was approximately 10 inches. In contrast, the delayed opening on Feb. 13 came with just two inches of snow during the day. These amounts align with Trubetskoy’s data on snowfall and school closings, falling comfortably near the 12-inch number that Trubetskoy determined was the amount of snowfall that merits a school closing here.

When refreshing snowdaycalculator. com, this locational data is factored into the probability calculation along with weather updates issued by weather.gov. The calculator also provides opportunities for users to enter other relevant information, such as the number of snow days that their school has had in the current year and whether their school is public, private, urban or rural. The calculator’s creator, MIT graduate student David Sukhin, doesn’t reveal the algorithm that he uses for the calculator. But its success has served students across the country who rely on the calculator to determine whether to prepare for classes the next day or not.

The calculator has garnered use nationwide and can receive up to 250,000 hits during a severe storm, according to a Feb. 12, 2016 CBS Boston interview with Sukhin.

The frequent use of snowdaycalculator. com by Tufts students points to the trust that many have in the site. In a Feb. 20, 2016 interview with WCVB Boston, Sukhin noted that since the calculator’s conception in 2012, it has only been wrong about Boston-area predictions once or twice. He also echoed that the trends outlined by Trubetskoy’s map ring true in the calculator’s predictions — Boston-area schools are more likely to have a snow day than those in upstate New York and Michigan with the same amount of snowfall but less likely than those in states south of us.

Here at Tufts, unpredictable East Coast storms can often cause an emotional roller coaster ride as we determine whether to prepare for a snow day or not. The snow day calculator and trend history of snowfall’s correlation with school closings can help us predict snow days on our own campus, and — perhaps more importantly — decide how many more hours we can stay curled up in bed, avoiding the stormy outdoors.

Rebecca Redelmeier is a sophomore majoring in English. Rebecca can be reached at rebecca.redelmeier@tufts.edu.

6 tuftsdaily.com

Arts & Living SINGLE REVIEW

The singles bar: diss tracks and sophomore previews

RALPH AVERSEN / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Lorde performs at the ACL Music Festival on Oct. 12, 2014.

by Cassidy Olsen Arts Editor

Not unlike the random May-weather weekends that have been popping up to keep hope — and climate change anxiety — alive during the otherwise brutal Boston winter, some of pop and R&B’s favorites have been dropping singles left and right to keep us going until we’re blessed by actual album releases this spring and summer. March has already given us not one, but three new Nicki Minaj tracks, two much-anticipated Lorde singles and the first new song from Alt-J in three years. Oh, and more Frank Ocean. That should be enough to hold us over until R&B’s comeback sweetheart Tinashe drops “Flame” today, which she might just perform during her set at Spring Fling in April if we wish hard enough.

“No Frauds” – Nicki Minaj Last week saw the simultaneous release of three new Nicki tracks: “Changed It” featuring Lil Wayne, “No Frauds” featuring both Wayne and Drake and “Regret In Your Tears.” While “Changed It” is standard fare for Nicki and Wayne and “Regret In Your Tears” is notable as the first song in which Nicki reveals her feelings about the end of her long-term relationship with Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill, “No Frauds” is the real news here. The track is a direct response to rapper Remy Ma’s “ShETHER,” a vicious attack on all things Nicki released on Feb. 25.

Nicki’s beef with Remy goes way back, and although Nicki has certainly found mainstream success that remains elusive to Remy, “No Frauds” doesn’t do much to support her status

as reigning queen. On the track, Nicki raps, “Tried to drop ‘Another One,’ you was itchin’ to scrap / You exposed your ghostwriter, now you wish you were scrapped / Heard your pussy on ‘Yuck,’ I guess you needed a pap / What type of bum bitch shoot a friend over a rack.” This lyrical approach is more passive-aggressive than is usual for Nicki, and she appears to have let expectations grow insurmountably high during the two weeks between the release of “ShETHER” and “No Frauds.”

Drake does alright and it’s still Nicki, but it’s all pretty forgettable.

Rating: 2.5/5 “3WW” – Alt-J Oh, Alt-J. We’ve missed you so. Although their sophomore release “This Is All Yours” (2014) was an inevitable disappointment after their oozy, sexy and infectious debut alternative album “An Awesome Wave” (2012), it’s exciting to hear “3WW” in anticipation of their third album “Relaxer” (2017) in June. The acoustic guitar and soft maraca intro do not show the intensity we’re used to hearing from the trio, and the whole song suggests they will take a more experimental singer-songwriter approach to their next release. This could be a disappointment for some, but it’s actually refreshing to not hear the band recycle the distinctive sound of their first album that others have been able to parody. Also, the lyric “I just want to love you in my own language” is a far cry from “Triangles are my favorite shape.”

Rating: 3/5 “Liability” – Lorde Everyone and their mother is eagerly anticipating Lorde’s sophomore album, “Melodrama” (2017), due for release on June 16. Although the pre-summer

release date should have given us a clue, “Melodrama” doesn’t sound like it’s going to be as, well, dramatic as “Pure Heroine” (2013). While her debut was filled with a powerful and resonant teen angst, her two newest singles “Green Light” and “Liability” demonstrate a tonal shift towards pared-down piano rhythms and pop accessibility. “Green Light” has taken off with its danceable backbeat, but “Liability” steps into Adele territory, with Lorde crooning about perceiving herself as ‘difficult’ in relationships. “You’re a little much for me, you’re a liability, you’re a little much for me / So they pull back, make other plans, I understand / I’m a liability, get you wild, make you leave / I’m a little much for everyone,” she sings. It might be on-thenose, but it will probably make you cry at your desk at least once.

Rating: 4/5 “Chanel” – Frank Ocean Frank stunned the scene with his sophomore release “Blonde” (2016) last August, and he’s been dabbling in features since but has otherwise laid low.

“Chanel” is warm and gauzy and everything you could want from Frank, featuring obscure literary, film and cultural references surrounding the perfect hook, “I see both sides like Chanel,” most likely a reference to the singer’s bisexuality and the name of his first album “channel ORANGE” (2012).

Designer Coco Chanel was rumored to be bisexual, and the Chanel logo features two intertwining C’s facing opposite directions. It’s all really great, okay?

Frank never disappoints, so it’s going to hit hard when he eventually, someday, puts out something less than great.

Rating: 5/5

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Fury Sheron E For Everyone

Blackbox

W

hy should you play “Blackbox – think outside the box” (2016)? Because it finally gave the tired phrase ‘a game unlike any other’ something meaningful to do. This is a game specifically created for the technical abilities of an iPhone, but don’t stop reading. I, like you probably, am always hesitant to download a mobile game since hundreds of them are launched every week, and it’s really hard to be trusting enough to find one of the good ones that will respect you as a player. And it is more difficult to find one that doesn’t rely on the basic tap-swipe mechanics.

That’s where “Blackbox” blows everything else out of the water. It describes itself as a “refreshingly oppressive puzzle app” — a very astute description, since “Blackbox” is a game where you solve challenges without touching the screen.

Mind blown yet? Not touching the screen was the only constraint “Blackbox” creator Ryan McLeod put on himself when making this game. “Just when I would begin to worry and think I was close to exhausting all ideas, I’d go on a run and come up with four more. Creative solutions abound around adversity,” McLeod wrote on Medium. And adversity is exactly what this game guarantees to provide, as there are countless five-star reviews titled “love-hate relationship.”

The very mechanics are the puzzles themselves, so I can’t discuss them much or I’d spoil everything and take the fun out of it. But let’s just say that this game uses all the technology at an iPhone’s disposal, and that means all plugs, switches and sensors.

“Skills based in linear thinking, like engineering and math, A-to-B skills, are relatively straightforward to hone and sharpen. But skills based in creative, circuitous, outside-the-box thinking are far more nebulous and hard to readily improve,” McLeod wrote.

McLeod’s creative side is clearly visible in this app. The interface is a stunning minimalist landscape of colorful little round-edged cubes against a soothing black backdrop. The game features lovely, smooth animations and a playful, clever sense of humor. Considering the brilliance of the atmosphere and the very concept alone, it’s hard to believe this app only took two years to make.

Additionally, you’ll be happy to hear, this game has zero ads. No annoying pop-ups you’ll accidentally click on, no 30-second videos to revive your character, nothing. The game makes its money solely from packs of new challenges, hints for those with enough rage to spend $0.99 on puzzle clues and the courage not to look them up illegally and donations to cover McLeod’s named expenses — coffee and burritos. The way this man respects the user is brilliant in a way rarely found on mobile, possibly one of the most money-grubbing game platforms ever. In short, his game teaches us that new, exciting, surprising genre-breakers can still be found after any amount of content has already been produced for it.

“Blackbox” is available for free on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches with iOS 8.2 or later. But if you like this game, you’ll probably spend a good chunk of change just giving McLeod burritos out of love-hate.

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

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Thursday, March 16, 2017 | Comics | THE TUFTS DAILY

tuftsdaily.com

Comics

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Kathleen: “What is A-Goo-Ah Fresca?”

Comics

SUDOKU

GARFIELD

BY JIM DAVIS

NON SEQUITUR

BY WILEY MILLER

Difficulty Level: Wanting more snow.

Wednesday’s Solution

FOR RELEASE MARCH 16, 2017

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

ACROSS 1 The Miners of the Lone Star St. 5 Eurasia’s __ Mountains 9 Fundraising gps.

13 Caesar’s France 14 Marner of fiction 16 Hindustani language 17 What Dobermans do for dinner?

19 Innocent 20 Retro wall unit 21 Titanic undoing 23 Not very bright 24 Super-cold concoction at Baskin-Robbins?

28 Yale alum 31 Longtime Yankees announcer __ Allen 32 First to play James 33 Tall and lean 35 “Sadly ... ” 38 Box 41 World’s stealthiest detective?

44 Got out of bed 45 “So __ say” 46 Crowd-sourced review site 47 Asian takeout option 49 Little trickster 51 See 56-Down 52 Cutest Baby contest champion?

57 Security briefing org.

58 Clothing part that might split 59 Epic tales 63 Singer James 65 Massage epiphany?

68 Agenda detail 69 Gets mud on 70 Phi __ Kappa 71 Banks of 2000s TV talk 72 Doing business 73 “The Osbournes” patriarch DOWN 1 Brand of sheepskin boots

By Bruce Haight

2 Biting 3 Italian capital 4 Fallback option 5 __ Today 6 Tease 7 “I was out of town,” e.g.

8 Approach midnight 9 Place to hoist a pint 10 DBA followers 11 Madison Ave. field 12 In-your-face challenge 15 Feudal laborers 18 Protective barrier 22 El __ 25 Authentic 26 Dole out 27 Like birds with worms, so it’s said 28 Designer Schiaparelli 29 Cowardly Lion portrayer 30 Facing serious trouble 34 Singer who formerly stylized her name with a dollar sign

3/16/17

Wednesday’s Puzzle Solved Wednesday’s Solution

©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

36 “__ du lieber!”

37 Yarn purchase 39 Squeal 40 Catch sight of 42 Raises 43 Many a gospel song 48 Brainstorms 50 Uruguayan money 52 Nail a test 53 Like Oscar Wilde

3/16/17

54 Mackerel relative 55 Beatnik’s “With ya” 56 Repeating movie role for 51-Across 60 “Sheesh!”

61 Animated bug film 62 Time at a hotel 64 Org. for docs 66 Pint to drink 67 AOL alternative

8 tuftsdaily.com

Anna Tolette The Elephant in the Room

I

It ain’t easy

’ve danced all my life. Starting in third grade until my senior year of high school, I sacrificed hours upon hours for the perfect pirouette or pique turn. My dance teacher always said to us that the point is to make even the most difficult leap look effortless. As hard as your legs would be working to get that perfect 90-degree angle, your face still had to be placid and your arms look relaxed and natural because that’s what an audience will tend to look at. Always keep your shoulders down and chin up, smiling. The point was to make anyone who didn’t dance say, “Hey, I could do that.” It’s kind of along the same vein as looking at a Jackson Pollock and not understanding why some guy’s random splatter paints are in the Museum of Modern Art and yours from fourth grade aren’t.

When seeing the New York City Ballet recently, I made a point to watch the dancers’ feet. For every count in the choreography, every part of the body is perfectly synchronized and in a particular place. The average viewer sees a dancer, but to a trained eye, that person is an athlete harnessing every muscle in their body. I’ve found that being a college student, we have to make it look like we have everything together as easily and naturally as a ballerina traveling from stage left to stage right.

In a particularly enlightening conversation with one of my friends, we gained a lot of mutual understanding that many of the things that I’ve been struggling with, she has been struggling with as well. We discussed the fact that we have a responsibility to make balancing academics with social life, extracurriculars, mental stability and sleep all while making it seem like it comes easily. The fact of the matter is that sometimes it’s really hard to choose what to prioritize over something else.

I have a diagnosed anxiety disorder.

I am not afraid or ashamed to admit that; it is merely an integral fact about me, just about as relevant as the fact that I have brown hair. Basically, that means that I have a really hard time living in the present and tend to worry about things happening in the future.

When I begin to become anxious about something, rationality goes out the window. I can draw you a diagram pointing to the probable outcome of an event and have it right in front of me and still not believe it. Let me tell you, it’s difficult to be able to function at such a high capacity for such a long time. Sometimes I just want to scream at the top of my lungs, “This is hard!!!

I am having a hard time!!” but if I did that, I wouldn’t be an easy, breezy, beautiful college student. To be honest with you, I don’t think that I am the only one who is feeling this way. The ease with which we are able to accomplish tasks is a completely personal matter, and it’s okay if our effort shows.

Anna Tolette is a sophomore majoring in film & media studies. Anna can be reached at anna.tolette@tufts.edu.

Opinion

Thursday, March 16, 2017

EDITORIAL

Tufts should reduce administrative costs, increase transparency American colleges and universities consistently take a majority of the top 10 spots in worldwide rankings. As higher education has become more crucial for professional success, the demand for higher education has also gone up significantly.

As most students are painfully aware, this rising demand was paired with rising tuition costs. In 1971, the average college tuition for private research universities was $1,832 (in today’s dollars) compared with the $31,231 students had to pay in 2015. Colleges and universities often attribute these rising costs to cuts in government subsidies and increased demand for financial aid, but one of the lesser-known and more impactful causes is the administrative bloat.

The administrative bloat refers to the nationwide disproportionate growth in college administrative positions.

According to a PBS report, “since 1975 … full-time administrative positions grew by 369 percent, whereas full-time tenure-track faculty grew by 23 percent and part-time faculty by 286 percent.” The growth in these administrative positions has been accompanied by a growth in administrative salaries, thus putting pressure on universities to increase tuition.

In 2011, for example, 42 private college and university presidents had an annual

salary of over $1 million. Many presidents also receive lavish perks such as club memberships or seven-figure loans for vacation homes. While University Pre sident Anthony Monaco’s salary is modest in comparison to the presidents of comparable universities, this issue is still very applicable to Tufts, particularly considering the recently-announced 3.6 percent increase in tuition for the 2017–2018 school year.

The Tufts administration is not lacking in personnel. The Office of the Trustees’ website shows that there are 17 Officers of the University who “conduct the business of the university.” There are also 11 committees, each with their member employees, that are “elected or appointed by the Trustees to oversee university matters in specific areas.” While the website lists these employees and committees, there doesn’t seem to be public information on what it is they specifically do or how much money is being spent on them.

Furthermore, in a May 6, 2016 op-ed in the Daily, Monaco explained that of the $355 million spent in 2015 on the School of Arts and Sciences and Engineering, nearly $40 million went to institutional support such as the human resources department, implying that administrative costs are high.

One way to start reducing administrative costs is to streamline the chain of command.

The University of California at Berkeley saved $20.5 million annually by doing just this.

Supervisors used to oversee an average of 5.1 employees, and when this was increased to 7.1, the university saw significant savings.

In 2012, Tufts launched Tufts Effectiveness in Administrative Management (TEAM) to try and accomplish this. However, it was not as successful in saving a large amount of money for the university. In June 2016, Executive Vice President Patricia Campbell announced TEAM’s wrap-up as well as the fact that it will only save Tufts $3.8 million annually.

Universities often cite the demands of parents and students for more amenities and services as part of the reason for increasing costs. But if this is the case, why aren’t parents and students informed about how much is being spent in administrative management? Anyone who pays tuition should be perfectly informed as to what and who it is they are paying for.

While many of these administrative costs might be justified in order for Tufts to remain competitive, the lack of transparency in costs is not. If Tufts truly believes that it is spending money in the best interest of its students, it should be willing to provide detailed information and cost breakdowns as well.

The Tufts Daily wants to hear from you!

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Upset about something happening at Tufts or in the community?

The Daily welcomes all thoughts, opinions and complaints from all readers. Have your voice heard!

Send op-ed submissions, 800-1200 words, to tuftsdailyoped@gmail.com.

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.

Thursday, March 16, 2017 | Opinion | THE TUFTS DAILY

Opinion

SPRING BREAK

LYDIA RA

Office of Government and Community Relations seeking Paid Intern for Community Day 2017 The Office of Community Relations seeks a student intern to assist with planning Tufts University’s fifteenth annual Community Day on Sunday, October 1, 2017.

This position can start as early as April and last until a week after the event date.

Community Day is an opportunity for the Tufts community to welcome Medford and Somerville residents to campus so that they can learn more about the university, get information about local community organizations, and enjoy free entertainment and other activities. The event takes place on the academic quad and is co-hosted by the cities of Medford and Somerville.

Responsibilities of the Community Day Intern: • Attend planning meetings and other meetings regarding Community Day. • Under the supervision of Community Relations and University Relations staff, manage assigned areas of responsibility in planning and producing Community Day 2017. Assigned areas of responsibility may include working with Tufts departments (e.g., Catering, Facilities, TUPD, academic departments, etc.), Tufts student groups and volunteers, and Medford/Somerville community organizations.

• Serve as one of the on-site supervisors for the event. Be present for the duration of the event, and assist in set-up and clean-up tasks.

• Effectively communicate planning progress to the offices of Community Relations on a weekly basis.

• Familiarity with the Internet and on-line research skills.

• Report hours worked on a weekly basis.

• Other duties, including: answering phones, photocopying, filing, assembling mailings, and individual projects, as assigned.

ESTIMATED time commitment: The exact schedule will be determined based on program needs and intern’s availability for September and October.

Qualifications: • Successful experience with event planning and management.

• Computer experience including proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite.

• Live in close proximity to campus, or be able to travel to campus regularly, during the summer.

• Excellent organizational, communication, interpersonal, and time management skills.

• Mature, professional demeanor.

• Must be present day of event • Will have to carry/lift various supplies • Enthusiasm for the goal of creating an outstanding Community Day 2017!

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO APPLY, PLEASE CONTACT Alanna.Fusco@tufts.edu. The application should include your resume and responses to the following questions: What are your qualifications for this position and what do you hope to offer? Have you ever attended Community Day? If so, do you have any suggestions for improving it?

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10

THE TUFTS DAILY | Sports | Thursday, March 16, 2017

tuftsdaily.com

Thursday, March 16, 2017 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

Sports

March Madness

Vinny Donofrio Vinny's Variety Pack

T

by Eddie Samuels

Executive Sports Editor

March can only mean one thing … college basketball is at the forefront of everyone’s attention. The Daily and I, Eddie “The Ides” Samuels, are here to provide you with some of the most (and least) insightful bracket advice. Unsurprisingly, one-seeds dominated the final four picks, with Villanova, Gonzaga, UNC and Kansas each earning at least four selections.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of bracketology with the Daily is the unique ways that our editors picked specific match-ups. Executive News Editor

11

Joe “National Frozen Food Day” Walsh did as one might expect of a newsman and relied on the reputable sources — in this case, Nate Silver’s percentage-based breakdown.

Executive Features Editor Costa “Buzzard’s Day” Angelakis chose a different tact. He relied on weighted games of rock-paper-scissors with his roommate. Managing Editor Jei-Jei “Alien Abduction Day” Tan relied on the power of mascots to break down the tough calls, leaving her with the Wildcats, the Wildcats, the Wolf Pack and the Razorbacks in her final four.

Kathleen “Ash Wednesday” Schmidt

and Gil “Purim” Jacobson were surprisingly the only two to include Gonzaga in their championship match-up. While washed-up former Executive Sports Editor Phil “National Chocolate-Covered Raisins Day” Goldberg picked a battle of the Carolina rivals UNC and Duke in the finals. Production Director Sebastian “Chinese Arbor Day” Torrente showed some favoritism to the Ivy League, and has the Princeton Tigers upsetting literally everyone to win the title.

In the words of my predecessor: With that, may our (not-so) oblong balls bounce favorably, may we pick the winningest teams and may Phil fail horribly.

Passionate about sports?

Have a unique perspective on student athletics?

Interested in covering the intersection of sports and the larger Tufts community?

Write for us!

Contact dailysports@gmail.com!

NFC West draft needs

he first wave of free agency is done and about 95 percent of the biggest names have been signed. I could go and do free agency grades for each team, but that is way too much work.

A quick filler if you haven’t been paying attention: The Browns actually did good things, AP is still free and the Patriots killed it because apparently Bill Belichick has never made a mistake in his life. Now onto the NFC West.

San Francisco 49ers: Pick 2 Draft Needs: Everything Ho boy. The 49ers are bad. This is without a doubt the lowest point in franchise history. Former GM Trent Baalke and owner Jed York did their absolute best to tank their organization, and they succeeded. However, with Kyle Shanahan as the new head coach and John Lynch as the new GM, things are on the up and up. During FA, the Niners filled some needs and picked up Brian Hoyer (QB), Pierre Garcon and Marquise Goodwin ( WRs) and Malcolm Smith (LB). Their draft strategy should be ridiculously easy: Pray the Browns royally screw up, then draft Myles Garrett.

However, that’s unlikely. Instead, the 49ers will probably end up drafting DE Solomon Thomas out of Stanford.

Thomas is an absolute freak and is one of the best pass rushers in the nation.

He would provide immediate help and leadership to a lost 49ers team.

Los Angeles Rams: No First-Round Pick I hope Jared Goff was worth trading for this year’s first-round pick. (Spoiler Alert: He wasn’t.)

Seattle Seahawks: Pick 26 Draft Needs: OT, DT, CB The Seahawks, per usual, are a strong team. ICYMI, they recently signed RB Eddie Lacy, which just makes them more competitive. What they need to do now is bolster the offensive line to give Lacy and Thomas Rawls some running room and Russell Wilson some pocket protection.

This is a pretty weak NFL draft for linemen, but I believe LT Garret Bolles out of Utah would be an incredible addition — if he isn’t swooped up by the Giants first.

Bolles is a bull who can hang with any end in the business. He is hyperaggressive and excels at making tackles at the second level. Bolles brings a type of physicality that will be worshipped up in Seattle.

Arizona Cardinals: Pick 13 Draft Needs: SS, QB, OT, ILB, DE Wow. The Cardinals really blew free agency. They lost: DE Calais Campbell, SS Tony Jefferson, CB Marcus Cooper and SS D.J. Swearinger. In other words, they lost half of their defense.

The Cardinals relied on their defense and their stellar play — and the play of RB David Johnson, of course. After losing their best players, it is essential that they draft defensively, regardless of their woes at QB. I believe the first place to start is at strong safety, where they lost the great Tony Jefferson. This draft isn’t too strong at SS, but I think that if he is available, Jabrill Peppers of Michigan will be a great addition to the Cards. He is strong, fast, versatile and an athletic phenom. Just imagining him and Tyrann Mathieu swapping positions all over the field gets me all hot and sweaty.

Vinny Donofrio is a senior majoring in clinical psychology. Vinny can be reached at vincent.donofrio@tufts.edu.

12 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Thursday, March 16, 2017

SOFTBALL

Veteran bats and young arms prepare for new softball season

by Sam Weitzman

Assistant Sports Editor

For the first time in four years, the Jumbos will begin the regular season without the title of national champions.

While the team’s aspirations remain as high as ever, coach Cheryl Milligan – entering her fourteenth year heading the program – emphasized the importance of keeping early results in context.

“We’ll be tested [on] day one for sure, but I don’t think our season is going to live or die on day one,” Milligan said.

The season begins over spring break, when the team will take a trip to Clermont, Fla. “We’ve got 14 games down [in Clermont],” Milligan said. “We will also play the [No. 5-ranked Luther Norse (6-0)] while we’re down there, so it will be a good test to see where we are at this point in the season. And – win or lose – if we do well against those teams, I think we’ll know that we’re heading in a good direction. But we’re out to win every game, so that’ll be the goal.”

Senior tri-captain outfielder Carrie Copacino offered additional insight into how the pressure during last season to repeat as champions impacted the team’s collective psyche.

“Honestly, last year [the pressure] was a lot of what we struggled with,” she said. “I think this year that pressure is off of us. So, it’s actually more of a positive thing going into this season. I think we’re more hungry for it. This year we have a lot more positive outlook on where we’re sitting than we did last year.”

Tufts entered 2016 having won the NCAA Div. III National Championship in each of the previous three years (including a perfect 51-0 campaign in 2015). Last year, the Jumbos assembled a perfect 12-0 in the NESCAC East Division before finishing as a runner-up to the Williams Ephs in the NESCAC Softball Tournament.

In the NCAA tournament, Tufts beat the Becker Hawks and the Salve Regina Seahawks, but two defeats to the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Engineers condemned the Jumbos to a regional finals defeat. Tufts finished with a 30-12 overall record, having lost more games in 2016 than in the previous three years combined.

At the heart of Tufts’ batting order stands senior tri-captain first baseman Cassie Ruscz. The Wolcott, Conn. native is a two-time second team AllAmerican, two-time NESCAC Co-Player of the Year, and three-time member of the All-NESCAC First Team. Last year, Ruscz led all of Div. III in home runs

SOFIE HECHT / THE TUFTS DAILY

Softball players congratulate each other during the team’s 7-5 win against Bowdoin on April 1, 2016.

(18) and ranked in the top ten nationally in runs batted in (61) and slugging percentage (.887). She also posted a team-high .409 batting average and walked more times than she struck out (14 vs. nine).

Junior catcher/outfielder Raven Fournier also earned All-NESCAC First Team honors last year. The 2015 NESCAC Rookie of the Year and third team AllAmerican avoided a sophomore slump by launching the second-most home runs in the NESCAC (eight, only trailing Ruscz) and leading the conference in walks (22) while hitting .366.

Also returning this season are two members of the 2016 All-NESCAC Second Team: junior pitcher/utility player Raina Galbiati and sophomore shortstop Christian Cain. Last year, Galbiati posted impressive numbers from both the mound and the batter’s box. In 18 pitching appearances (13 starts), the Boulder, Colo. native went 10-4 with a 2.96 ERA in 82.2 innings. Additionally, Galbiati slashed .429/.506/.586 and registered 25 RBIs in just 70 at-bats. Cain, meanwhile, assembled a .388 batting average while leading the team in doubles (12) and ranking second in at-bats (121).

Milligan singled out senior first baseman Summer Horowitz and junior catcher/utility player Sara Willner-

Giwerc as two players who have made significant improvements during the offseason.

“Summer Horowitz has been swinging a great bat in practice. She’s really poised to have a great senior year,” Milligan said. “She had a pretty good year last year, but I think she’s kind of coming to be on par with Cassie in terms of really major power in our lineup. I think we had Sara Willner-Giwerc at a couple different positions last year. This year, she’s really improving behind the plate, so I’m expecting her to do some time behind there … mainly because she has a really strong arm.”

In comparison to its veteran lineup of position players, Tufts’ pitchers are relatively inexperienced, with three first-years joining junior Raina Galbiati and sophomore Amolee Hawkins on the staff.

“You know, [when it’s the] first week, first college start, that can be a little shaky, so it’ll be interesting to see how they get their footing,” Milligan said.

Nonetheless, she expects the new players to assume a major share of the pitching load for the Jumbos this season.

“We certainly have plenty of arms.

It’s just a matter of who’s going to be an effective arm,” she said. “Right now, our top two pitchers might be freshmen

[Allison Tilton and Gillian O’Connor].

But they’re freshmen, so [it’s] even harder to say. If they do what they’re capable of doing, they should get a bulk of the starts with Raina, Amolee, and another freshman, Maria [Ostapovich], filling in around the edges … I think they’re going to progress in our program as great talents on the mound.”

One first-year player who has already vaulted herself into the starting lineup is infielder Casey Maggiore.

“Casey Maggiore has been really productive at the plate and really, really defensively sound at third base,” Milligan said. “She’s got the position locked up for herself at this point.

She’ll be one freshman who’s not on the mound and making a pretty big contribution.”

The Jumbos begin the season on Saturday with two games in Clermont.

Tufts plays the Plymouth State Panthers (0-0) at 9:00 a.m. and the No. 7 Linfield Wildcats (12-2) at 11:30 a.m.

Copacino noted that it can be difficult to start a season playing ranked teams, such as Linfield.

“This is their 15th game and we’re on game one,” she said. “I think it’ll be good for us to get into playing and see how we all work together once we’re on a field. It’s definitely different than in practice in terms of the pressure.”