The Tufts Daily - Thursday, April 12, 2018

ACCESSIBILITY AT TUFTS

‘A Quiet Place’ a silent hit see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 6

Tufts presents mobility, accommodation challenges for students with disabilities

Jumbos top podium six times in home meet see SPORTS / PAGE 10

SEE INVESTIGATIVE / PAGE 3 THE

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Katy Tur headlines Murrow Forum, encourages resilient, fact-driven journalism

by Shantel Bartolome Staff Writer

Katy Tur, NBC News correspondent, MSNBC anchor and author of “Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History,” discussed contemporary media issues and the state of journalism at Distler Performance Hall in the Granoff Music Center yesterday. Tur is best-known for covering the Donald Trump presidential campaign for NBC News and MSNBC, as well as for receiving frequent, direct taunting from President Trump.

Approximately 100 people were in attendance.

The event was the 13th annual Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism, sponsored by the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, the Film and Media Studies program and the Edward R. Murrow Center for a Digital World, according to the event’s program. The lecture is also part of Tisch College’s Distinguished Speaker Series.

Tur was welcomed by University President Anthony Monaco and Julie Dobrow, a senior fellow for media and civic engagement at Tisch College.

In her remarks, Dobrow emphasized the importance of journalism.

“We here at Tufts are honored to welcome you here today, not only because of your achievements, but also because your work has demonstrated the intelligence, the compassion and the commitment to journalism as a form of public service that we try to impart with our students,” Dobrow said.

Neal Shapiro (LA ’80), former executive producer of “Dateline NBC” and current president and CEO of WNET, guided the conversation with questions.

In her talk, Tur stressed the importance of good political journalism.

“This job is really important. Informing people about the election; their candidates; how they should vote; giving them the tools to make the best decision they can make personally is one of the most important jobs we have in our democracy. Period, end of story. It is crucial,” she asserted.

She explained that aggressive campaign supporters and President Trump’s personal attacks did not dissuade her from reporting the facts. see KATY TUR, page 2

Tufts China Care Club cancels LUX spring fashion show

by Abbie Gruskin Staff Writer

Tufts China Care Club, a student-run club supporting foster care in China through the One Sky Foundation, the Family Village Program and the China Care Home, will not be holding its annual LUX Charity Fashion Show this April, according to Tufts China Care Club Fundraising Co-Chair Ada Huang, a sophomore. It is the first time in 10 years that this event has been canceled, according to Co-President Julia Bell, a senior.

LUX was previously held every spring in Cohen Auditorium and featured Tufts students modeling various clothing brands, according to Bell. The event also served as one of Tufts China Care Club’s largest fundraising events, according to Huang.

“LUX was our main spring fundraising event in the past as a charity fashion show with sponsors from the shops along Newbury Street,” said Huang.

The fashion show generated awareness for the club, and all proceeds were donated to the OneSky Foundation, according

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to Tufts China Care social chair Hannah Shaich, a junior.

“We have raised thousands of dollars for the OneSky Foundation and have changed the lives of many children in the Chinese foster care system,” Co-Presidents Julia Bell and Michelle Luo, a junior, said in a statement on Facebook last November. “With the funds provided by LUX, we have funded critical surgeries and placed children into permanent and loving foster families.”

At the beginning of this academic year, however, members of Tufts China Care Club decided against continuing the annual fashion show, according to Bell.

Shaich explained the reason for the change.

“This change was [decided] because the club felt that LUX, although well known, was incredibly difficult to organize and set up,” Shaich told the Daily in an electronic message. “A lot of work and connections as well as personal investment of time would have to be done, and the club didn’t want to put that strain on someone.” see LUX FASHION SHOW, page 7

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Director of Women’s Center K. Martinez leaves Tufts after 11 months

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY

K. Martinez, director of the Women’s Center, poses there on May 8, 2017.

by Jenna Fleischer

Assistant News Editor

K. Martinez, the director of the Women’s Center, will be leaving Tufts on April 13. In their past 11 months as director, Martinez has spearheaded a number of changes and updates to the Women’s Center and overseen projects and programs on a larger scale.

Martinez’s first order of business as director was to renovate the Women’s Center.

“Luckily we had money in our budget, and I was able to use those funds to create a new aesthetic [in the Women’s Center],” Martinez said. “We changed the paint, the artwork, the furniture, and that was really big to change how people engaged with the space. I’ve heard nothing but really positive comments from people; they feel like it’s a really welcoming space.”

Artwork in the Women’s Center features women of color, exposing students to images they might not often see on campus, according to Martinez. In this sense, Martinez emphasized that the Women’s Center seeks to be countercultural. “[With the makeover] I think we sent a message to the campus that we are really intentional with our space, what it looks like and what it feels like, and that we’re paying particular attention to people who don’t often see themselves elsewhere on this campus,” they said.

Fatima Blanca Munoz, a staff assistant at the Women’s Center, stressed that Martinez has done important work not just for the Women’s Center, but also for the university as a whole.

“I have been at Tufts for about 3 years now and I now see more and more students enter

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the space more than I did previously,” Munoz told the Daily in an email. “Almost every day, the center is packed with students from all genders and races.”

Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon echoed this sentiment.

“During their time at Tufts, K. spearheaded a number of interdepartmental initiatives for the Office of Student Affairs, including working with the Provost’s Bridging [Differences] campaign throughout the 2017-18 academic year,” McMahon told the Daily in an email.

“They also have overseen various projects and programs at the Women’s Center, including a highly acclaimed update to the Center’s space and the creation of programs like the P.O.C. Circle.”

From personal experience and first-hand account, Munoz knows the impact Martinez has had on the Women’s Center as a space, as well as the students that inhabit it.

“I have repeatedly heard from students that the Women’s Center is a place they feel most comfortable and I think that speaks to the hard work K has put into the physical transformation of the center and its intersectional programmings,” Munoz said.

Martinez has made a lot of effort to go to people and tell them, “You are welcome at the Women’s Center.”

“I’ve gotten to meet other students who haven’t had a relationship to the Women’s Center before, and they have been here for some time.

Because of me, they have come here,” they said.

“Something about what I’ve done and how I’ve done it has reached a new audience of people who have already been here.”

NEWS............................................1 INVESTIGATIVE....................3 ARTS & LIVING.......................6

see K. MARTINEZ, page 2

COMICS.......................................8 OPINION.....................................9 SPORTS.....................................10

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Thursday, April 12, 2018

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K. Martinez reflects on their time at Tufts K. MARTINEZ

continued from page 1 However, on multiple occasions throughout Martinez’s 11 months on Tufts campus, they have questioned whether Tufts is the place for them. Issues of faculty retention, lack of opportunities for professional growth and the campus culture, as well as the greater Boston area culture, led Martinez to question their place and presence.

Selected from over 100 people nationwide who applied to be director of the Women’s Center, Martinez stood out. Additionally, their prior role as Associate Director of the Diversity and First-Gen Office at Stanford University and next position in Philadelphia both involved national searches.

“While I feel like the university paid a lot of attention and put in a lot of energy in the hiring and recruitment, I don’t feel like the same amount of energy is invested in the retention of people,” Martinez said. “The work doesn’t stop once we get here.”

Budget issues at Tufts meant Martinez, among others, saw a significant decrease in the amount of money and resources allotted to staff for professional development and growth over the past year.

“I value being able to stay up to date [on] what colleagues are doing in the field,” they said. “The only way I’m going to grow and become a better director of the Women’s Center is if I keep surrounding myself with people that are learning.”

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Having lived in New Orleans, La., and Oakland, Calif., Martinez said coming back to Boston, their hometown, was an eye-opening experience. Martinez has found the city is not a welcoming place for people of color like them.

“Being a person of color and genderqueer, I felt like I just stood out,” they said. “Medford and Tufts are not in a bubble, the hostility from Boston and the area permeates here too.”

Over the past summer, Martinez had an experience, which they documented in the Observer, where they did not feel welcome on Tufts’ campus.

Despite these circumstances and situations, Martinez believes the students have made their time at Tufts worthwhile.

“They are committed to asking these questions of ‘what do we need to do at Tufts to make people feel more welcome?’ They really care,” Martinez said. “I look back at my time here and I love what we’ve done. I love that there are days that I just come in [the Women’s Center] and there’d just be students everywhere.”

Over the course of their tenure at Tufts, Martinez estimates they have worked with at least 300 students through trainings and workshops that explore concepts such as gender identity.

“I know that what I’m committed to is diversity, inclusion and equity,” Martinez said. “Always asking questions wherever I go, whatever institution or organization I’m

a part of, and really questioning what is our default and never accepting that the way we’re doing things now can’t be changed and improved.”

In terms of next steps, Martinez is excited to be working in a new field after 11 years in higher education. They will continue to work on diversity, equity and inclusion in Philadelphia.

According to McMahon, a process of devising an interim-staffing plan in coordination with staff and student leaders is currently in the works.

“My immediate priority is to have an established coverage plan, including continuous support for students, in place for the rest of the academic year,” she wrote.

“Then we plan to search for a director with the hopes of naming someone by the start of the school year.”

As Martinez transitions out of their role as director, they have thought about the turnover the position has had: seven directors in the past three years. Students have created a list of requests, which includes the demand for an Interim Director to be named as soon as possible and full-time support staff, to ensure the well-being and sustainability of the Women’s Center.

“I put a lot of time and energy into every square inch of this space, as well as our mission and vision,” Martinez said. “I want to make sure we help students feel there’s a sense of security and stability here.”

“I hope it [2020 presidential campaign media coverage] looks like reporters talking to more people, as opposed to just covering the horserace of politics,” Tur said. “And politicians are obviously very newsworthy, but just as newsworthy is: What are people thinking? What are people worried about? What do they want to see changed? What do they want to see stay the same?”

She expressed concerns about the current political climate under President Trump.

“Right now we’re living in scary times … We don’t have a shared set of facts any longer, and without that, it’s hard to tell where people will look to get their news or get an opinion they trust … It’s dangerous, and it’s short-sighted. I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Tur noted. “All of the factors that got Donald Trump elected are still there, so it’s not unreasonable to say that Donald Trump has a very good chance of getting re-elected in 2020, as of this moment at least.”

women in journalism and the #MeToo movement. She talked about a part of a women-led team of journalists, covering President Trump’s campaign.

“It was amazing. The team was all women, not by design, but by hard work,” Tur said.

“It was a nice dichotomy to have a … strong, powerful group of women coming out and being the voice of journalism for 2016 … It was a privilege to … help inform the voters about who exactly they’d be voting for.”

Tur ended her lecture with a Q&A session that discussed fake news, the future of campaigns, the writing process, keeping informed and the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Finally, Tur advised budding journalists to persevere in the face of competition and rejection.

“You’re going to get a lot of ‘no’s … Only one person needs to tell you yes,” Tur said. “And when you get that yes, you run with it, and you look for your next yes … Work your way up.

Just do it, and take criticism to heart. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Learn from it.”

In Murrow lecture, Tur advises budding journalists rather than solely politicians, in the future.

Tur also discussed the experience of KATY TUR

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continued from page 1 “This job is more important [than] Donald Trump’s petty grievance. It’s more important than me feeling uncomfortable right now,” Tur said. “So my strategy, no matter what I was feeling inside, was to just look at the crowd and smile and wave. And it was really effective because they didn’t see me bothered by it. They thought that I was making it [a] joke.”

In a roundtable before the event, Tur explained that the American public has the responsibility to be informed and engage with current events.

“Resiliency should be shared between all of us. If you are worried about the state of our country, then consume … If you’re worried about facts not mattering, make sure they matter. Have conversations with people you don’t agree with. Enlighten where you can,” she said.

Tur also believes that journalism should focus more on American public opinion,

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Katy Tur, NBC News correspondent and MSNBC anchor, headlined the 13th annual Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism in Distler Auditorium on April 11.

INVESTIGATIVE

Thursday, April 12, 2018

by Ray Bernoff Staff Writer

This is part two of a two-part series produced by the Daily’s Investigative Team.

Walking up the steep slopes of Tufts’ Walnut Hill isn’t much more than a daily annoyance (and effective calf workout) for most Tufts students. But what can seem like an unfortunate necessity for some presents daunting obstacles for others — namely, those few students at Tufts who have physical disabilities.

As covered in part one of this article, trying to get an accessible dorm is a

challenge, but off-campus housing offers different hardships to students dealing with injuries and disability. Figuring out how to get from an off-campus apartment to an on-campus classroom is difficult for students who have trouble walking long distances.

Getting around: inconvenient for some, painful for others Senior Leah Holden lives off campus.

She used to enjoy the fresh air on the 15-minute walk from her apartment on Boston Ave to Anderson, but the walk became laborious while she was healing from a broken foot her junior year, and she

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY

A stairwell in Olin Language Center is pictured on March 12.

needed to bring water and take frequent breaks. She preferred to take the 94 bus or an Uber if she needed to travel more than a short distance. Holden says Student Accessibility Services (SAS) told her to take Uber around campus if walking with crutches was too hard.

“That’s okay for me because I made enough money over the summer from my internship to do that, but what if you didn’t? That’s not sustainable. You can’t just Uber to class every day,” she said.

Unlike Holden, Sam Slate — for whom a sophomore year leg injury turned into chronic pain and mobility issues — can’t use Uber very often, especially because he doesn’t know if or when his leg will heal.

“I think for me one of the hardest parts is that I’m on a lot of financial aid and it feels like if you have a disability, especially at Tufts, the way you get around it is you kind of pay for things. If you have money, you can offset the difficulties. You can pay for having a car, you can Uber,” Slate, a senior, said. “But for people like me who don’t have that ability, it’s doubly hard because you have to balance decisions of ‘do I hurt myself more, or do I pay money?’”

Instead of taking Uber, Slate uses the bus to get around. He noted that there are almost no benches at the bus stops on campus, and no benches at all on the outbound side of the 80 bus route where he waits to ride to doctor’s appointments in Arlington. No benches means standing to wait for the bus, which means more pain. That in turn means less energy to get through his doctor’s appointments.

Jessica Graham is a Resumed Education for Adult Learning (REAL) student living with a variety of difficult illnesses, including postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which makes her so lightheaded she sometimes faints and passes out; Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a degenerative connective tissue disorder that weakens her joints and makes it hard for her to walk or use her wheelchair to get around campus; fibromyalgia, which causes muscle pain and tenderness; and chronic fatigue syndrome, which makes her so tired she sometimes struggles to get out of bed.

Tufts shuttles offer free transportation around some parts of campus and to Davis Square and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA). But on the days she can get her wheelchair down the stairs of McCollester House, the graduate student building where she lives, Graham said she hasn’t had the guts to get on a shuttle. She said SAS told her all

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shuttles are wheelchair accessible, but because there are almost no wheelchair users on campus, Graham has a feeling the shuttle drivers wouldn’t know what to do if a wheelchair user wanted a ride. On days she needs her wheelchair, she usually stays in or compromises by using her cane. The sidewalks on campus are often crooked or cracked, which make her fall out of the chair.

“With my disability, I dislocate joints really easily, so wheeling up a hill I’m gonna pop my shoulders out and stuff. So I usually rely on my cane, which is pretty good most of the time,” she said. “But actually getting in and out of doors is a pretty big thing for me.”

She wears a backpack and often needs one hand to carry another item or bag.

With the cane in her other hand, that’s no hands left to hold doors open.

“Opening the door and having it slam on you before you can get inside of it is an experience I have every day with the building I live in,” she said. The shuttle worries Graham, but walking isn’t great either.

Director of SAS Kirsten Behling encouraged students who needed transportation accommodations to get in touch with SAS. “There are a number of individualized accommodations that SAS can put into place for students depending on their needs,” she told the Daily in an email.

Graham, Holden and Slate all said they had heard about a service similar to TapRide for disabled and injured students that had been shut down a few years ago, possibly because too many people were asking to use it.

When asked about the existence of this service, Tufts University Police Department (TUPD)’s Deputy Director of Public Safety Operations Leon Romprey said there had never been a dedicated ride service for injuries and disabilities.

“On occasion and subject to availability, TUPD has provided courtesy transports to students with disabilities [if ] asked when the safe ride service has not been available. Because of the nature of TUPD’s duties and responsibilities, such as responding to emergencies and other calls for service that require a timely response, TUPD is not a reliable means of transportation for students with disabilities,” he wrote in an email to the Daily, adding that TUPD has a working group exploring alternative options. see ACCESSIBILITY , page 4

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THE TUFTS DAILY | INVESTIGATIVE | Thursday, April 12, 2018

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Transportation, parking cause campus accessibility troubles ACCESSIBILITY

continued from page 3 The Daily followed up to ask about this working group, but did not receive a response from TUPD before publication.

For students who can afford it, driving can ease the difficulty of getting around campus. Senior Sidney Beecy borrowed her dad’s car for the summer and the fall semester while recovering from surgery after she tore her ACL at a SkyZone Trampoline Park. She said she would have struggled to get by without it.

“I would have to take less hours at work because I now have increased transit time.

I wouldn’t have been able to do my senior thesis [in the fall] because the lab I do it in is on this side of campus, and a lot of the stuff I was doing was pretty early in the morning … a lot of what I was doing was building

“I was freaking out. I was already really tired from being on pain meds for the past two weeks, so I had a minor breakdown in the police office,” she said. “And I didn’t go to classes that day.”

Another talk with SAS confirmed that they hadn’t been in communication with TUPD about Beecy’s parking pass.

In the end, SAS paid for Beecy’s pass, but she said she could tell they hadn’t planned on it.

“SAS paid the police department money out of their pocket. It wasn’t like I was getting a parking pass for free, it was just being covered by SAS,” she said. “I’m sure that’s part of the reason they wanted me to take a semester off, because they’re under-resourced and wanted to be able to use that money to help other students or devote to other projects.”

have time or care for the students they’re working with.”

Graham couldn’t get SAS to offer her a handicap parking pass. This past summer, she commuted to Tufts from the South Shore. Parking far away from her destination wasn’t an option; she can’t walk long distances, and POTS makes her so heat-sensitive that she passes out if she’s outside in the summer sun for too long. When Graham asked for a parking pass, SAS said she could have a faculty pass, which would let her park closer to academic buildings. Just like a handicap

Beecy further explained the calculus involved with deciding the best path to walk around campus with an injury.

“So let’s say you have to be somewhere in like 30 minutes. You can either spend those 30 minutes walking all the way around to Dowling, going up, and walking back around that way, but that takes more time so you have to walk quicker,” Beecy said. “Or you can walk more slowly, but then you have to walk up a portion of the hill or like go up stairs. So you have a certain amount of time to get from point A to B, and have to decide: is walking faster

SITONG ZHANG

A solid line shows the non-accessible route from Tisch Library to Eaton Hall.

SITONG ZHANG

A dotted line shows the accessible route from Tisch Library to Eaton Hall. something, so I couldn’t feasibly do a lot of that,” she said. “I think that if I hadn’t had my car I wouldn’t have been able to do a lot of the things I had to do. I definitely would have taken a lighter class load, because that’s more time in between classes.”

Driving around campus, though, is only useful if students can park near their destination. Parking on campus with a regular parking pass requires students to walk long distances, but handicap parking passes are not easy to come by.

Graham, Slate and Beecy have all tried to get handicap parking passes. When Beecy spoke to SAS about getting a parking pass, she was told she could have one — for $200. Beecy had been unable to work for a month and was still paying for doctor’s appointments and physical therapy to care for her torn ACL. She felt it was unfair that she had to pay so much for a parking pass, so she called SAS to talk to them about it.

“She [someone in SAS] was like ‘You should just not come to school. You should take a semester off.’ And I was like ‘I feel like that’s not the solution,’” she said. “‘Cause it’s my senior fall, and I’m not going to not graduate on time because I hurt myself and am going to be out of commission for at tops a month.”

Beecy’s advisor told her to talk to her dean about the situation. Her dean talked to SAS, who offered her a free parking pass. But when she went to TUPD to pick up the pass on the first day of classes, TUPD told her she owed them $200. Beecy told them SAS was paying for it, but they said they needed the money right then.

After many emails and meetings, Slate was eventually able to get a pass, but he couldn’t get SAS to explain why there was no clear procedure for the process.

“I was given the impression that there was these forces that were pushing back [against SAS] and that they couldn’t get all into a room, and I was given no information as to who they were. I get the feeling that all of the departments are just very spread out,” he said.

When asked if SAS has their own policy on providing parking passes to students with disabilities, Behling said that ultimately, any accommodations would be worked out on a case-by-case basis.

“SAS will absolutely work with students who, because of the nature of their disability and its corresponding impacts, need access to parking on campus,” she wrote in an email to the Daily. “We have a number of different resources available (including access to faculty/staff lots and handicap parking spaces) to support students with this need, but the ultimate accommodation is determined on an individual basis.”

Behling did not respond to the Daily’s question regarding whether it is standard practice for SAS to pay for these passes themselves.

Slate said that despite his frustration with handicap parking, he feels SAS was doing their best.

“SAS has been really nice to me. I know some people have had difficulties. I’ve had a great time with them,” he said. “When I talk to them I can tell they’re up against this giant bureaucracy that doesn’t really

pass though, it cost $200, which Graham didn’t have. And inconsistencies between Tufts parking passes and state handicap parking passes made the experience even more frustrating.

“I asked for the disabled spots but they said you have to go through the state for that,” she said.

The website for Tufts’ Department of Public and Environmental Safety (DPES) does specify a parking policy for handicapped spots, but in order to park there both a state-issued handicap permit and a valid Tufts parking pass are required.

There is no policy listed by the DPES regarding free or discounted Tufts parking passes for those with disabilities.

Parking is difficult and expensive.

Uber and Lyft are expensive. Shuttles are unreliable. TUPD rides are unreliable. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) buses are unreliable.

For disabled and injured students, sometimes the best way to get around campus is to walk. Slowly. Holden said she felt embarrassed using her crutches on campus because other students stared at her.

“You crutch along, and it’s like the first time anyone’s ever seen someone who broke something,” she said. “It definitely felt kind of shameful for me, going around just trying to survive. It sucked.”

Beecy said she avoided walking when she could.

“I think I maybe could have walked if I’d needed to, but I don’t think I would have been able to do other things,” she said. “I have an energy budget, and if 50% of that is going to managing pain and walking everywhere and leaving everywhere 20 minutes early so I can limp to and from places I’m supposed to be, suddenly I don’t have the energy or time to do the things I want to do or need to do.”

over a longer distance worth it? Or is it going to be less painful or less exhausting to go up the hill?”

Graham said she’s discouraged by how long it takes and how hard it is to get to class, dining halls and the library.

“I fear for future Tufts students coming here, especially with my disability being degenerative, ‘cause I was ok when I got here and it’s progressed,” Graham said.

“It’s like, am I going to have to give up because I can’t walk up the stairs? It’s scary and I’m really hoping things will change, at least for future students.”

The hill seems to be the biggest obstacle. Tufts is so defined by it that its residents refer to it as a proper noun: ‘The Hill.’

Does this mean the Medford/Somerville campus is fundamentally inaccessible?

“I wonder if it’s just that so many people with disabilities are discouraged from coming to Tufts at all, because of the hill,” Holden said. “It’s interesting because we don’t even have an accurate representation because we don’t know how many people don’t even apply because it’s so bad.”

Accommodations and understanding Graham says SAS suggested great ideas for accommodations, including allowing her to record lectures instead of taking written or typed notes.

“But there’s only so much they can do when the campus itself is the way it is — what can they do, make a ski lift up and down the hill?” Graham said.

Behling said that SAS tries to make registering with their office as easy as possible and make proof of disability flexible.

“Many schools reject student documentation if it is older than a particular date range. Tufts is rare in that it does not impose such restrictions. Rather, we treat each student and their situation individsee ACCESSIBILITY , page 5

I N V E S T I G AT I V E

Thursday, April 12, 2018 | INVESTIGATIVE | THE TUFTS DAILY

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SAS provides accommodations, if students can find them

ACCESSIBILITY

continued from page 4 ually and will work to determine what is needed based on that individual student’s situation,” she said.

Behling added that SAS works to assist students dealing with a new diagnosis.

“Tufts does help students navigate the diagnosis process if they have not been diagnosed before. We also will put temporary accommodations into place while that student gets the support they need,” she said. “Our goal is not to make a student wait for their accommodations, but rather to help facilitate the diagnostic process (including being sensitive to the cost of diagnoses) and helping them as they go through the process. A student who is interested in receiving services, even if they do not have a formal diagnosis, should contact SAS.” Graham said she didn’t know what accommodations were available to her when she first approached SAS, an experience Slate, Holden and Beecy also mentioned.

Beecy wasn’t sure at first whether SAS offered any physical accommodations at all.

“Originally before calling, I went to the SAS website, but it just seemed very like, ‘Do you need extra time on tests? Do you have a mental health problem that affects your classwork?’ So I didn’t really think it was where I was supposed to be,” she said.

“But I figured it out.”

Behling explained why SAS doesn’t list accomodations on its website.

“Drawing upon [the] best practices in the field, SAS provides individualized assessments for each and every case referred rather than presume that accommodations fall within a predetermined list of options,” Behling wrote. “We

value the student as an expert with their disability and will ask what they think they need. At the same time, we’ll make recommendations on what we think they need as well.”

Even when students do receive accommodations, Graham said she wished Tufts would train professors to take disabilities and accommodations seriously.

“I had a professor rip an exam out of my hand when time was up even though I was supposed to be getting half extra time. And it’s hard, because you don’t want to make your professor mad, you don’t want to get on his bad side, and I’ve heard a lot of professors don’t believe the student because ‘you don’t really look that sick,’” she said. “But there’s so many different disabilities and a lot of them aren’t that visible.”

“I wish there was some way to get the word out to them, that we’re not just lazy or looking for a free ride, we really have a medical condition and we’re suffering,” Graham continued. “It breaks my heart every time I hear these stories and I hear them all the time. Every disabled person I meet, they have a story about this happening to them.”

Behling said that students should contact SAS immediately if a professor refuses to honor their accommodations.

“We will work to understand the situation and advocate on behalf of the student if their accommodation is not being fulfilled. When we have repeat concerns with a faculty member, we refer the faculty member to OEO [the Office of Equal Opportunity], which will initiate a review,” she said.

Behling said SAS educates faculty about accommodations through a variety of sources, including newsletters, a

resource website and departmental and individual meetings. In addition, the OEO also teaches faculty about disability every year.

Andrew Feder, a junior and the president of the Coalition for Autism Support, who said he is autistic but not physically disabled, also said that education and a greater understanding of disability are crucial to affect change.

“People just need to be out about these things, they need to tell their friends, tell their teachers, tell their family, ‘Hey, I exist, I deserve respect, I deserve to be understood,’” he said. “We can eventually create a world, or at least a school, where people don’t face a lot of misunderstanding and judgment and other gross awkwardness that they do today.”

Beecy said she has a better understanding of her disabled peers’ experiences after her injury.

“I feel like I have kind of a unique perspective because I didn’t have to deal with it at all before, and then all of a sudden it happened, and now it’s done again,” she said. “[T]alking to my friends who have been dealing with it from day one, they’re like ‘Oh yeah, that’s just a thing that happens,’ and I’m like ‘No, this shouldn’t be happening, this is an outrage, how dare they not do this!’ And they’re like, “This is the life of a person who is disabled.’”

Slate isn’t sure that Tufts, or at least Tufts’ administration, has the capacity to change.

“I see Tufts as this giant private institution that doesn’t really care for the cogs in the system, and I’m ready to get out and try to join a community and be in a community that really prioritizes the well-being of everyone,” he said.

But he hasn’t given up on being under-

stood. This January he released a chooseyour-own adventure game based on his life at Tufts, hoping to share his experience. When his sister played it, Slate said, she cried. She had no idea how much thought he had to put into a simple decision like where to get lunch.

Injured and physically disabled students at Tufts make dozens of decisions every day: Skip class, or climb the stairs to an inaccessible building? Pay for a ride to Carm, or get stared at as you walk there?

Tufts is improving its buildings and teaching professors to respect student accommodations, but according to students living with physical disabilities, there’s much work left to be done. Can Tufts really claim to put a light on the hill if some of its students have no way to get up it?

Graham said that if she knew the extent of her disability upon entering Tufts, she would think twice before enrolling.

“I wish I would’ve taken into consideration how inaccessible [Tufts] is … but when you’re looking at Tufts, at least from an outside perspective, you hear them always talking about diversity and inclusion,” Graham said. “And I’ve seen not just with disability but on many fronts that this is just a shimmery mirage in the desert that we have and we’re like, ‘ooh’ but when you get right down to it, it’s really not there.”

Slate was even more critical and had bleak advice for any prospective Tufts students with physical disabilities.

“The current accessibility level at Tufts is absolutely dreadful,” he said. “If you have a disability and you are looking at this school, do not come. It’s bad and it’s not going to get better.”

6 tuftsdaily.com

Arts & Living

Thursday, April 12, 2018

The Wonder Years tackles distance with ‘Sister Just because it is Cities’

Julian Blatt Tufts Creatives

happening inside your head doesn’t mean it isn’t real

W

e have all experienced feelings of sadness and anxiety during our time at Tufts. For some, however, these emotions are much more pervasive. On Monday, junior Bri Pastro, the co-president of Active Minds at Tufts, helped organize the annual Mental Health Monologues, an event that aims to raise awareness about mental illness through the sharing of experiences and stories.

Julian Blatt (JB): What is Active Minds?

Bri Pastro (BP): Active Minds is a group on campus. We work with both the community and the administration to find ways to address the stigma around mental health and help people who struggle with mental illness receive the best possible treatment.

JB: Why should people share their stories?

BP: It’s very cathartic to expose yourself in front of a crowd, and the Tufts community is endlessly supportive. That was my experience when I read my monologue my sophomore year. People I didn’t even know came up to me after the event to tell me that they could relate to what I spoke about. It was comforting to learn that I wasn’t alone.

JB: What was your monologue about?

BP: I had a concussion my freshman year and returned to school with concussion syndrome as well as accompanying mental health issues. I talked about struggling to find my own mental health story.

I was dating someone who struggled with mental health. My mom was struggling with mental health. I wasn’t sure how my battle with illness tied into my personal identity, and I hoped that by sharing my story I would discover the answer. It was one of the most emotionally vulnerable things I’ve ever done — I was shaking the entire time. But it was a very healing experience.

JB: How does the use of art when addressing mental health help spread awareness?

BP: I think it makes the topic more digestible. Mental health can feel abstract for people because it’s intangible. But I think a lot of people find art to be a really expressive medium that facilitates empathetic discussion of these issues. Art is evocative in a way that makes it better at capturing the intricacies of mental health than anything else.

JB: What do you hope this event will accomplish?

BP: The immediate goal is for people to feel safe and welcome to talk about the experiences they shared or the ones they heard other people share. Ideally, people will approach the readers and say, “I’ve struggled with this too, you’re not alone,” or, “This is something that has been a really big part of my life.” And hopefully when audience members return home they will continue the dialogue. The most important thing with mental health is that we have to talk about it; otherwise, it becomes a shameful, dirty secret, which I think is incredibly detrimental. The big picture for Active Minds is leading Tufts to become an even more accepting community, and addressing these issues through monologues is a great way to start.

Julian is a first-year majoring in cognitive and brain sciences. Julian can be reached at julian.blatt@tufts.edu.

VIA HOPELESS RECORDS

The album art for The Wonder Years’ new album “Sister Cities” is pictured.

by Ryan Eggers

Assistant Arts Editor

“I miss everyone at once. But most of all, I miss the ocean,” is the final line of a new record from The Wonder Years, “Sister Cities” (2018). On its face, the lyric may not appear to be saying much of anything, nor would it flow in a stream of sad Tweets, but the band puts together 11 songs that show you what it truly means to “miss the ocean.”

The Wonder Years is one of those exceptional bands that has a unique trait in its discography — it grows with you.

Whether you’re a high school student, sifting through college, finding your way in adult life or anything in between, you will relate with each of its records as the band evolves and progresses as you do. With “Sister Cities,” the group’s most mature record yet, lead singer and lyricist Dan Campbell puts out a piece of art that anyone, at any stage of life, can find deep ties to.

The band wastes no time with the opening track, “Raining in Kyoto,” immediately pouring out a verse that feels as if it’s bubbling up with pulsing drums and plenty of interesting guitar licks to chew on. What’s more important, though, is how Campbell begins this album lyrically.

The song is about Campbell discovering his grandfather’s death as the lead singer boarded a flight to Japan while on tour. Seemingly helpless to mourn the loss, Campbell resorts to honoring him at

a Shinto shrine, thousands of miles away from the rest of his family. The song sets a tone for an album that is often dark, but with plenty of light at the end of the tunnel if you’re willing to look for it.

Relatively speaking, “Pyramids of Salt” and “It Must Get Lonely” are a bit of a softer step back from the opening track, though the former boasts one of the most powerful and memorable choruses on the record. “Pyramids of Salt” also features a bit of synth in its backing instrumentals, which is a definitive shift from their previous works.

“Sister Cities,” the title track, kicks in with a fun guitar riff and then a heavy bassline. As the lead single of the album, it easily stands as its most catchy, though as a title track its concept is crucial to the record as a whole.

Campbell’s inspiration for the title comes from a plaza in Santiago, Chile that holds a monument for Santiago’s sister cities. Campbell mused about the concept of sister cities, realizing that after touring all across the world, he feels a connection between every place he goes. In short, perhaps every city is a sister city.

This idea is expanded on in the final line of “Flowers Where Your Face Should Be,” a sweet and soft love song where Campbell recalls creating their wedding arch out of driftwood. Distance and overcoming it or coming to terms with it takes a prominent role in this song and in the album as a whole.

“Heaven’s Gate (Sad & Sober)” passes by as a very classic The Wonder Years track, providing imagery of fading away like the phases of the moon. More death comes into play with “We Look Lightning,” an eerie track about the fear of dying inside an airplane, an obvious source of anxiety for a group of people who fly across oceans on a regular basis. It might be the most interesting track instrumentally on the record with a plucky guitar line, funky bass and heavy synth influences throughout the song.

“The Ghosts of Right Now” is the heaviest track on the album, with a piercing guitar solo and Campbell belting out lyrics about a sick loved one.

“When the Blue Finally Came” is essentially a two-minute acoustically backed poem about jumping off of cliffs in Australia.

The atmosphere of the song is clear — it’s the beginning of the end for “Sister Cities”.

That ending is premeditated with “The Orange Grove,” a track that features verses that feel just a little on edge, describing a dark emergency room visit and a desire to return to an orange grove.

Finally, “The Ocean Grew Hands to Hold Me” arrives, which Campbell has described as his favorite song that The Wonder Years has ever written. It’s nothing less than a culmination of everything that preceded it, both instrumentally and lyrically, with careful synth use, calculated guitar riffs and plenty of words about distance, love and loss.

In the song, Campbell decides to stop turning to God to handle the darker emotional depths of his life. He instead finds solace in the ocean, a symbol for humanity and everyone living on this Earth, no matter how far away they may be. After years of touring and meeting wonderful people on all corners of the globe, he now sees that community is what keeps him afloat, whether it be his closest loved ones or complete strangers. The final line, “I miss everyone / But most of all, I miss the ocean,” fits perfectly into place.

“Sister Cities” is about love, life and death, but most of all it is about distance.

Part of growing up is coming to terms with the things that you can’t control, as Campbell has learned in the last few years.

Sometimes you may feel like you’re far away from where you want to be, either physically or emotionally, but coming to terms with that distance, even if it’s insurmountable, is a big part of moving on.

What The Wonder Years has put out is an album that speaks to anyone, be it college kids wishing they were back home or 40-year-olds wishing they were still 25. Distance is all around us, and navigating through that distance is what life is all about. “Sister Cities” helps that navigation process. It also just may be the band’s greatest work yet.

Silent horror ‘A Quiet Place’ is a chilling success

by John Fedak Arts Editor

The genre of horror is not particularly well-known for stylistic innovation. Most films tend to focus on jump scares and cheap thrills over any semblance of a realistic story or unique cinematography, which is why John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place” (2018) comes as such a shock. Not only is it able to remain truly and delightfully scary, but also the movie itself is a work of art, masterfully using silence to enhance everything from the plot to the

character development. Because of the cast’s overall outstanding performance, audiences become invested in the characters, and this allows the movie to overcome horror cliches while also rendering it terrifying.

The film is set in 2020 and follows a family who struggles to stay alive in the face of otherworldly danger. The world has been overrun with mysterious creatures that hunt humans and are seemingly impervious to damage. There is a catch, however: The creatures rely overwhelm-

ingly on sound. If you can stay quiet, you can stay alive. As the movie progresses, the family must navigate the challenges of communicating without sound, dealing with emotional differences and even making it through a pregnancy, all while trying to avoid a gruesome death.

If you thought a movie couldn’t be done without spoken dialogue, “A Quiet Place” will quickly prove you dead wrong.

While it’s true that there are only around three minutes of spoken dialogue over the see A QUIET PLACE, page 7

Arts & Living

Thursday, April 12, 2018 | Arts & Living | THE TUFTS DAILY

The way ‘A Quiet Place’ plays with sound is the biggest strength, highlight of the film

Dorothy Neher How Tufts Works

Service with style

M

A QUIET PLACE

continued from page 6 film’s hour and a half runtime, the cast portrays meaningful, realistic and deep connections with each other all while using only American Sign Language to communicate.

Krasinski, who wrote, directed and produced the movie in addition to acting in it, is the father of the Abbott family, struggling to protect his family in a world gone completely to hell. As the film reaches its climax, his declaration of love for his children and his total vulnerability is one of the movie’s best scenes. His wife, played by Emily Blunt, gives one of her most excruciatingly human performances, and audiences will pray for her survival throughout the movie.

Even the children deliver performances that are well above average. Cade Woodward as the youngest son is adorable and heartbreaking, while Noah Jupe as the middle child shows what it’s like to grow up living in constant fear of everything around you. But it’s Millicent Simmonds as the oldest child who shines the brightest; not only is the actress deaf in real life, adding another layer of depth to the film, but her feelings of guilt and teenage angst are so believable it feels as though she is in the theater with you. Every single cast member adds a meaningful layer to the family dynamic, but together, the five of them deliver a knockout performance.

Another highlight of the movie lies in its ability to make the audience as deathly quiet as the characters themselves. The lack of sound, which creates an atmosphere laden with dread, spills out from the screen into each viewer. You have to see “A Quiet Place” in a crowded theater — every crunch of popcorn, every restless shift in your seat, is magnified due to the way the movie paralyzes the audience into silence. If you make a sound, it truly feels like the creatures will somehow hear it and descend upon the Abbott family, creating an immersive experience simply through the lack of spoken words. Of course, there are also moments where the film erupts with sound, and this contrast between silence and deafening noise works incredibly well. The way “A Quiet Place” plays with sound is its best strength; every noise seems deliberately thought out, and this draws the viewer in and traps them there until the closing credits roll.

In addition to the lack of spoken dialogue, the film’s score is beautifully orchestrated in the way it punctuates moments of emotional action with cre-

VIA IMDB

A promotional poster for “A Quiet Place” (2018) is pictured. scendos of chilling terror. It fades into the background in the best possible way, enhancing the performance without being obtrusive. Similarly, the cinematography is well done, giving enough background information on the creatures without explaining too much, and the wide-angled shots of the Abbott’s farm are beautiful while also highlighting how alone the family really is. Even the CGI and special effects are masterfully done.

The creatures themselves are alien and horrifying to look at, down to the most specific details — the way they salivate in

the presence of the family is disgustingly realistic. There truly aren’t any glaring weaknesses in the movie. While it struggles with cliches at times, and while parts of the scarce spoken dialogue feel unrealistic, overall the experience is one of pure and thrilling fear.

It is beyond refreshing to see a horror movie succeed in overcoming the genre’s tired tropes, and “A Quiet Place” managed to create a viewing experience that exceeded my wildest expectations. You must see this movie — it is perhaps the best horror film in years.

ly reflect our efforts and ideals as a group and involve both Tufts and the Medford/ Somerville community,” Bell told the Daily in an email.

Tufts China Care Club hopes to increase awareness of its mission to support children in the Chinese foster care system both within the Tufts community and the greater Boston area, according to the statement from Bell and Luo. “Our main goals as a group [are] to create a friendly environment and presence on campus while also supporting young orphans who may not get the opportunity to have the benefits of love and support that come from a family,” Shaich said.

This year, students can continue supporting Tufts China Care by attending smaller fundraising events, according to Shaich.

“Tufts China Care currently sponsors a family in Tianjin through the Loving Family program of OneSky, and through bubble tea sales, educational events and other means of fundraising, we hope to continue supporting this program financially and to spread aware-

ness of our cause on the Tufts campus and the broader Boston community,” Bell said.

China Care Club reconsiders values LUX FASHION SHOW

continued from page 1 The decision to retire this event also came after criticism from the Tufts community regarding the model selection process for the fashion show, according to Huang.

“We decided to pause LUX for this year as we received some backlash after our show last spring because we are reconsidering the values [Tufts China Care] holds and how they align with LUX,” Huang told the Daily in an electronic message.

“While we understood that the selection process for models would draw backlash, it far surpassed the amount of effort our LUX directors and presidents of [Tufts China Care Club] put in to make LUX a good show,” Huang said.

Moving forward, the club will focus its energy on creating a new event more in line with their goals, according to Bell.

“We are currently in the process of creating a new event for next spring to replace LUX both in scale and in fundraising capacity, and we hope that this event will more close-

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ETHAN CHAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts China Care hosts the LUX fashion show for charity in Cohen Auditorium, featuring clothing from designer brands and performances from Sarabande and the Fierce Four on April 4, 2014.

ost of the times that I go to the Student Services desk in Dowling Hall, I come equipped with lists of questions. I often feel guilty for burdening the people who work there with my lack of knowledge about the inner workings of this institution.

After speaking to Joann Jack, the registrar of the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering, I feel slightly less like a pest. Throughout her career in higher education, Joann has been tasked with answering questions posed by lost students and angry parents alike, on a daily basis. After years of being a Tufts encyclopedia, she still loves her job.

“I can honestly say I love to go to work,” she said.

Despite her expertise and her passion for helping students, Joann began her career in a very different field: mutual fund accounting. Although she worked in the financial sector throughout and immediately after college, she had her sights set on higher education.

So Joann gravitated back to school, getting her masters at Boston University while working in their financial aid office. It was there that she was introduced to the relatively thankless work of distributing aid. But it was not until she took a short career detour into the fashion world that she realized working in higher education was her life passion. Although Joann still loves fashion, shopping and finding a good deal, college is her true calling.

Since arriving at Tufts in 1999, Joann has come into her own. She started out managing the Student Services desk, which originally sat in the front lobby of Dowling Hall. As a new hire, Joann worked with her team to field 80 percent of incoming questions.

Joann successfully juggled this massive undertaking until she was promoted to registrar a few years ago. A ticket out of dealing with frazzled students and angry parents might have been a godsend to some; however, Joann’s love of working with students motivated her to lobby her bosses to maintain the Student Services aspect of her job.

Joann feels that it is essential that she and her staff maintain an awareness of the real problems that students encounter and need answered.

A problem solving enthusiast, Joann has spearheaded countless initiatives to improve processes within Dowling.

In her time as registrar, she has restructured the entire department, transferred all documents online and is currently working on implementing software to facilitate the expansion of Tufts summer programs.

Joann credits a great deal of her success to the people she works with.

Having the “greatest staff ever,” has made faculty governance less of a challenge for her. In this, Joann’s emphasis on leading by example has helped her gain the respect of her colleagues. Her long and successful career can be attributed to her ability to get the best out of her employees.

Joann seems to know how to make Tufts work best for students and faculty members alike. After almost two decades on the job, it’s clear that Tufts has worked quite well for her, too.

Dorothy Neher is a sophomore majoring in international relations and Spanish.

Dorothy can be reached at dorothy.neher@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Comics | Thursday, April 12, 2018

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Comics

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Daniel: “I miss Giancarlo’s dong”

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SUDOKU

ASK THE DAILY:

Q A

GRADUATING FRIENDS ANSWER BY ARMAN SMIGIELSKI

: As we get closer to graduation, I am starting to get nervous. So many of my closest friends at Tufts are going to be graduating in May. I’m excited for them, but I’m afraid that once they leave to start their post-grad lives, I’ll be left in the dust to have a lonely senior year. Anything I can do to set myself up for a happy last year at Tufts?

: You seem to be in quite the spot. On the one hand, many of your close friends are leaving and you should spend time with them, and on the other hand if you don’t work to establish friendships with people who will be on campus next year it may be difficult to find people to hang out with.

I’d suggest attempting to balance both of these — make sure to see your friends who are graduating but at the same time reach out to people in your current year and who will be there next semester. It’s not too late to start building relationships so that you have a circle of friends next year.

Difficulty Level: Looking elegant while eating chicken wings on your first date.

Tufts also offers a lot of jobs and opportunities over the summer that may be useful to look at if you are not that thrilled to head back home. But, definitely don’t feel pressured to have something over the summer. Sometimes it might be nice to just use the time to relax and stay around family and friends and just take a break to do what you can’t do when school is in session. Good luck!

Monday’s Solution

CROSSWORD

CARROLL'S Monday- $1 Oysters & Clams Tuesday- $2 Tacos & Sliders (Bar Only) Wednesday- $7 Burgers.

Add a beer for $3 (restrictions apply) Thursday- Select 1/2 Priced App's (Bar Only) Friday- $1 Oysters & Clams (Bar Only) 4-6 Saturday-$18.95 Prime Rib w Mashed

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Opinion

9 tuftsdaily.com

OP-ED

Why I’m leaving Tufts

by K. Martinez For the past 11 months, I have been the Director of the Women’s Center. At 32 years old, I am the first Queer Gender Non-Conforming Afro-Latinx person in this position and the youngest hire. At this moment in time, Tufts University was particularly special as the Women’s Center, LGBT Center, and Latino Center were led by three Queer Trans People Of Color under 35 for an academic year. What other institution in the U.S. could say the same?

While enduring a Trump regime which spews racist, transphobic and misogynistic rhetoric and policy daily, knowing I had these colleagues made me feel supported and like we were leaders of a new school of intersectional student support. As I depart for a new career move, I want to leave my truth and inquiry in the annals of public record during an era of fake news. I also want to leave words behind because too many marginalized staff and faculty leave in ushered silence. Which leads me to question: How many faculty and staff of color have left or are leaving Tufts University this year? How many of us have left over the past few years? Where are we going? Why are we leaving? Is this aspect of life for Black and Brown bodies on the campus being surveilled as much as others?

I remember the phone call I received on a sunny day in Palo Alto, California offering me the role of Director of the Women’s Center. Leaving California I was asked, “Are you sure you want to move to Boston after living in Oakland? Isn’t Boston racist?

Do you like snow?” Although I loved the Bay, the consistent weather was starting to feel like “Groundhog Day.” I reassured the skeptics that as someone born and raised

in Boston and who started their career at Tufts in 2011, I knew what I was coming back home to.

However, I started questioning whether or not I belonged here on my first day at Tufts where I was told repeatedly that I had to use my legal name as my e-mail address. That was the default in our system, I was told. Clearly, I was not the default. Was this place and system ready for me? Eventually, I was able to change my e-mail to reflect my chosen name but first impressions speak volumes.

Unfortunately, this experience is common for Transgender people nationally and I fear it may get worse. However, with a serious intentional effort, I believe no one has to go through this if we care to stop it and, if any campus in the country could do so, I believe Tufts can.

After a bumpy welcome, I got into an extreme home makeover of the Women’s Center which I refer to as “Queer Eying” the space. On May 21, 2017, The Tufts Daily announced my hiring with an article and photo of me which I liked. Unfortunately, not everyone liked it so much as the story received transphobic comments after its digital publication which led to The Tufts Daily disabling the comments section for the first time. I appreciated the fast action by student staff to alter their system’s defaults for me and they apologized for the hatred. I asked myself if I belonged here but I looked forward to Orientation as students always remind me why I do this work.

During Orientation, I met students and I was thrilled by their reactions to the Women’s Center. First-year Women of color took pictures of themselves next to artwork because it was the first time they had ever seen themselves reflected in an academic setting like this. I witnessed the

power of representation and while I was happy we created a space which centered marginalized imagery, it was a tragedy for students to have gone this long without seeing themselves. I asked returning students where else on campus they could experience this. Other than the G5 centers, the list was thin and it wasn’t Alumnae Lounge. Orientation was full of wonderful memories and it’s also when I had my second experience on campus with law enforcement officers in three months.

Given the campus’ freedom of expression policy, I agreed to be interviewed by The Observer alongside students of color who also had interactions with officers on campus. It seemed like we were all questioning our sense of belonging as a result of these interactions so early in the year.

Throughout the fall, students of all races and gender identities spent time together in the Women’s Center and we fostered an environment where students felt at home.

Student interns created a new bi-weekly affinity space for people of color on campus entitled POC Circle which additionally made students feel like the center was a space for them where Women’s Centers often default to White Cis Heterosexual Women.

In this era, it is more important than ever to support and create affinity spaces for targeted groups. I found myself explaining and defending this necessity more often than I anticipated and cared to do. Due to demand, POC Circle met weekly in the winter to support those who sought a healing space from trauma, misgendering and a lack of representation they experienced on campus and elsewhere. If students of color were experiencing this, was our faculty and staff, too? I found myself needing spaces to heal from similar things as I had never experienced them to this degree before.

Winter set in and Zora Neale Hurston spoke to me anew, as I began to feel most colored against this sharp white background. My gender expression and other modes of expression drew stares and scrutiny which made me feel further unwelcome, surveilled and policed.

Coming from Oakland, one of the most diverse cities in the country, I felt out of place in Boston and on campus and I was more attuned to the racial hostility which permeates this area as spotlighted by The Boston Globe.

The Brookings Institution recently cited new census population projections showing the U.S. will become “minority white” in 2045. They confirmed the importance of racial minorities as the primary demographic engine of the nation’s future growth, countering an aging, slow-growing and soon to be declining white population. Are the systems at Tufts prepared for seismic changes to come? Has the default been examined? The students I have met at Tufts inspire me with their imagination, desire for change and passion for justice.

Last week, I was moved to join them at their demonstration for dining staff rights outside of Ballou Hall as hail came down.

“We see you. We love you,” they chanted in regards to a dining staff who are predominantly people of color. I know they also see and love their faculty and administrative staff of color too. As more of us leave, they will notice the exodus. While my time here concludes and I return to an environment with greater diversity, I have the utmost hope in students to continue moving us to where we need to be and I will be cheering them on from afar.

K. Martinez is the Director of the Women's Center. They can be reached at k.martinez@tufts.edu.

CARTOON

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

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

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

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

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Sports

Thursday, April 12, 2018

MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD

Tufts turns in strong performance at Ellis Oval

by Liam Finnegan Sports Editor

The Tufts men’s track and field team hosted a quad-meet with MIT, Bates and RPI at Dussault Track on Saturday. The Jumbos kept up their strong early-season form, winning a total of six events and finishing second overall.

Junior Anthony Kardonsky won the 100-meter dash for Tufts. The Tenafly, N.J. native ran the event in 10.89 seconds, a time that is currently tied for 25th in Div. III. The Jumbos had several dominant showings in the event, as junior Tommy Miller (11.16 seconds) and first-year OJ Armstrong (11.18 seconds) placed second and third, respectively.

Senior co-captain Drew DiMaiti also secured a first-place finish, running the 400-meter dash in a time of 49.54 seconds. While his time won the race, the Medford, Mass. native was not able to top his season-best time of 48.46 seconds (recorded at last month’s Ross and Sharon Irwin Collegiate Scoring Meet), which is currently ranked sixth in the nation.

Junior Josh Etkind kept up the Jumbos’ success by taking first in the 110-meter hurdles. Etkind, who won the event at last year’s NESCAC Championships, finished with a time of 14.96 seconds on Saturday, just edging out MIT senior Chris Sweeney (15.03 seconds).

Junior Hiroto Watanabe won the 800 meters with a time of 1:56.06, beating RPI junior Frank Sinapi by almost an entire second. The Tufts 4×100-meter relay team, which consisted of junior Brandon Levenstein, Kardonsky, Miller and Armstrong, rounded out the hosts’ success on the track by capturing first place in the event with a time of 43.06 seconds.

Tufts’ field athletes similarly shined inside Ellis Oval. After winning the event at the Snowflake Classic on March 31, sophomore Kevin Quisumbing maintained his momentum in the shot put with a first-place throw of 14.96 meters.

Junior Ben Wallace posted a 4.40meter leap in the pole vault to capture second place. Wallace’s mark is currently

ALINA STRILECKIS / THE TUFTS DAILY

Sophomore Robert Jones competes in his own heat of the 400-meter dash in Tufts’ meet at Ellis Oval on Apr. 7. tied for 42nd in the national rankings. To round out Tufts’ success at the meet, firstyear Matthew Manteiga placed second in the long jump with a mark of 6.62 meters — tied for 44th in the country.

The Jumbos accumulated a total of 172 team points from their six first-place finishes and numerous other strong results to finish second among the four teams at the meet. They were edged out by the RPI Engineers, who earned a total of 175 points. The result was just the latest in the Jumbos’ recent stretch of good form, which has included a pair of meets in San Diego, Calif. and the Snowflake Classic.

“We are very happy about the way we have performed during the last few weeks,” DiMaiti said. “Everyone is excited to get into championship season, and we are confident going into the NESCAC championship in two weeks.”

Tufts coach Joel Williams echoed DiMaiti’s sentiments.

“Overall, we had a great weekend,” Williams said. “I try to use every regular-season meet as a building block toward our NESCAC, [Div. III] New England and NCAA performances. We never focus on, or worry about, other teams and what they bring to the table — we stay focused on our jobs.

Our goal for every meet is to get qualifiers, improve seed times and tune up on the technical aspects. As they always do, the guys took care of business.”

Tufts has been gaining a lot of momentum early in the season due to the strong results, which Williams attributes to the team’s dedication.

“Each season, we come in with a set of team goals, and we don’t worry about meet scores or places relative to other teams until championship season,” he said. “We

try to control what we can and improve what we do, and as long as we continue to work hard and stay focused on those goals, we will continue to be successful.”

The team will travel to Conn. College for a two-day meet this weekend — one of three events it has scheduled before the NESCAC Championships on April 28.

“I anticipate a great weekend at Conn.,” Williams said. “For the most part, our heavy hitters are doing their final tune-ups in preparation for championship season.

The guys really love the Conn. Invite, and since we didn’t go last year, they are very eager to get back. Friday night’s distance carnival provides a unique environment where it is really fast distance runners, and then on Saturday, we usually get pretty optimal conditions for sprints, jumps and throws. It’s a bit rare to get a meet that sets up nicely for all four disciplines.”

GOLF

Golf team prepares for promising spring season

EVAN SAYLES / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior co-captain Taylor Nordan putts in the NESCAC Fall Qualifier at Indian Hill Golf Club in Newington, Conn. on Sept. 30, 2017.

by Ethan Zaharoni Staff Writer

After a middling finish to its fall season, the Tufts golf team will look to improve

in its upcoming spring campaign. The Jumbos, who are led by coach George Pendergast, finished third at the NESCAC Qualifier and seventh at the New England Championships in October. The for-

mer result earned the team a spot in the NESCAC Championship later this month.

Tufts’ fall season saw a mixture of successes and disappointments while competing in half a dozen tournaments. The Jumbos improved in NESCAC competition, qualifying for the conference championship, which they failed to make by one spot the previous year. The team’s third-place finish at the NESCAC Qualifier, held at Indian Hills Country Club in Newington, Conn., marked the first time in program history that it has qualified for the NESCAC Championship under the current qualification format, which was implemented in 2007. On the other hand, the Jumbos failed to match their fourth-place finish at the 2016 New England Championships, instead finishing seventh at Captain’s Course in Brewster, Mass.

Sophomore Brandon Karr is coming off of a tremendous fall season and looks to replicate his success in the spring. Karr posted the team’s lowest score in four of the five tournaments that he participated in and finished the fall season with three top-10 finishes. The West Bloomfield, Mich. native tied for 10th in the Detrick

Invitational shooting 9-over par. A week later, Karr finished in a tie for third at the Duke Nelson Invitational, shooting 1-over at the two-day event. He closed the fall campaign by finishing fourth at the New England Championships with a final score of 3-over. Karr is excited to get the spring season underway, noting his hopes for both personal and team success.

“As a team, our goal this year has been make it to, and win, a NESCAC Championship then go to Nationals. I believe the intensity of our offseason has put us in an amazing position to accomplish this,” Karr said. “Everyone has been focused and committed like never before, and I have never had more confidence in this team. Personally, I expect to go out there and give myself a chance to win every week. I’ve always been putting in work toward getting better, but now I need to perform for myself and for this team.”

If past results mean anything, the Jumbos are poised for success this spring, see GOLF, page 11

Sports

Thursday, April 12, 2018 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

Jumbos eye upcoming NESCAC Championship GOLF

continued from page 10 as Karr is not the only golfer to have had a strong fall season. The team returns two of its captains from the 2016–17 season in seniors Aaron Corn and Taylor Nordan. Both had impressive performances in the fall, playing for the Jumbos in the majority of their tournaments. The two seniors played large roles in Tufts’ historic performance at the NESCAC Qualifier. Corn (9-over) finished 12th at the tournament, while Nordan (12-over) finished tied for 14th. Both golfers consistently finished among the top three in the Jumbos’ lineup during the fall season. Heading into the final chapter of his collegiate career, Corn hopes that the team performs well at the NESCAC

Championship and is doing his part to put the team in the best possible position to do so.

“I think I speak for the entire team when I say my hopes and expectations for this spring are to bring home a NESCAC championship for Tufts. As a team, I feel we are better prepared to do this than ever — we are coming off our most successful fall campaign in recent history, and we have all put in a lot of hard work this offseason to improve our games,” Corn said. “As cliché as it sounds, this is my final season as a collegiate golfer, I want to feel like I’ve left it all out on the course. I am choosing to focus more on doing the little things every day to make sure I put myself in the best position pos-

sible to be successful at the NESCAC Championship.”

The team also received a standout performance from first-year Alex Honigford in the fall. The Indianapolis native put on an impressive display at the Blazers Fall Invite, finishing in a tie for first with a two-day score of 3-over par. Honigford shot a 1-over 73 on Saturday at Hickory Ridge Golf Club and followed it up with a 1-over 72 at the Orchards Golf Club the following day.

Tufts’ spring season will kick off on Friday, when it travels to Allendale Country Club in North Dartmouth, Mass. for the Westport Hampton Inn Invitational. The Jumbos’ ultimate test will come in their final tournament of the season, the NESCAC Championship, from April 28–29.

SAILING

Even-keeled Jumbos stay focused despite tough results

by Caleb Symons

Executive Sports Editor

The Tufts sailing team competed in a quintet of team racing regattas over the weekend, setting sail in three of the six New England states in the process. With qualification for the national competition on the line at the New England Team Racing Championship, the Jumbos turned in a disappointing 11th-place result.

One year ago, Tufts rode a superb Sunday performance to a second-place finish at the New England Team Racing Championships on its home course of Mystic Lake. With the result, the Jumbos qualified for the Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) National Championship in Mount Pleasant, S.C., where they tied for ninth. Despite their past success, the Jumbos had measured expectations heading into the 2018 edition of the regional Team Championships.

“We thought [qualification] was a possibility … but we didn’t think our odds of qualifying were very strong,” coach Ken Legler said. “It takes a tremendous amount of experience to win at this level. It’s the best conference in the country, and it’s tough to qualify.

Last year, we had all senior skippers and we were at home. This year, we were on the road with junior skippers, [and] it’s their first year sailing at this level.”

Sure enough, the Jumbos got off to a difficult start on Saturday. With a steady breeze providing perfect conditions on Conn.

College’s Thames River, the team was in 10th place of 12 teams after the first day.

The sailors were greeted by slightly stronger winds the following day, but Tufts was unable to mount a Sunday charge. Instead, the team finished 11th overall, registering victories over Brown and Coast Guard for a 2–9 record. As the top four finishers, Yale,

Roger Williams, Dartmouth and Boston College qualify for the national tournament from May 26–28 in Norfolk, Va. Nonetheless, the Jumbos took mainly positives from their performance, which they can use as a crucial building block, according to senior crew Emily Shanley-Roberts.

“We compete in the most competitive conference in collegiate sailing … so our qualifier is very difficult,” Shanley-Roberts told the Daily in an email. “We had many close races and learned a lot. The team looks forward to returning to the qualifier next year with more experience.”

The Tufts women’s squad sent sailors to the Emily Wick Trophy, hosted by Yale. Surprisingly calm conditions on Long Island Sound limited the competition to just nine races in each division. Senior skipper Molly Pleskus and junior crew Taylor Hart steered the Jumbos to a 13th-place finish in the A Division with 108 points. First-year skipper Talia Toland and senior crew Lucy Robison matched their teammates’ performance with 108 points in the B Division to place 15th. The Jumbos’ overall total of 216 points earned them 16th in the 18-team field.

Tufts also competed in the Mystic Lake Team Race, as 10 three-boat teams took to the Jumbos’ home course in Larks (a faster, more responsive boat than college teams typically use). The hosts’ entrants ultimately finished first and second overall, separated by just one win. Both teams edged out a group from the University of Rhode Island that had missed qualification to the New England Team Racing Championships by just one spot.

The Jumbos’ top squad consisted of three skippers — senior co-captain Julien Guiot, senior Aaron Klein and junior Samuel Shea — and three crews in sophomore Emma Clutterbuck, junior Kahler Newsham and first-year Juliana Testa. Four

RAY BERNOFF / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior Molly Pleskus and junior Sabrina Van Mell sail in a regatta hosted by Boston University on April 16, 2017.

of the six members of Tufts’ second-place team (including all three skippers) were first-year sailors, so the regatta provided them valuable experience.

“Usually, there’s only enough team racing regattas for your A team and your B team, and we were able to get a [first-year] team, as well,” Legler said. “So that event worked out really well.”

The maritime marauders from Medford also visited Coast Guard for the twoday J70 Open, where they finished sixth with 75 points. Tufts struggled initially, placing seventh of eight teams in the first race of the weekend. The Jumbos responded, however, steadily creeping back into the competition thanks to three straight third-place finishes in races No. 5–7. Tufts surpassed Maine Maritime in the fourth event and nearly caught Mass Maritime, ultimately coming up just three points short in its bid for fifth place. Despite the result, the Jumbos can hang their hats on a second-place finish — their best result of the regatta — in the final race of the weekend.

Finally, Tufts competed in the Southern 5 regatta at the University of Rhode Island’s Point Judith Pond. The Jumbos turned in a sixth-place showing among the eight A Division teams with 142 points. In the B Division, the team performed admirably, registering 118 points for second place. The strong B Division showing was not quite enough to make up for a 28-point deficit in the A Division, however, as Tufts ultimately placed sixth overall with 260 points — just six back of fifth-place Yale.

With the conclusion of its team-racing season, Tufts now turns to fleet racing at the Owen Trophy in Kings Point, N.Y. and the President’s Trophy at Boston University.

Larger regattas are also on the horizon for the Jumbos.

“We are looking forward to women’s fleet race qualifiers in two weeks and coed the week after that,” Shanley-Roberts said.

Legler noted the differences between the two styles of sailing, as well as the Jumbos’ optimism heading into the new format. “[Fleet racing] is a much different game,” he said. “Everyone’s out for survival in their own boat, rather than working with teammates. We think we’ve got a good chance of making the top-eight in [co-ed racing] and an excellent chance of making the women’s Nationals.”

Tufts’ recent purchase of six new “Flying Junior” boats, which are used at national competitions, should help them prepare for success.

“The choreography of the tack is a little bit different in those boats, so it’ll become a little more natural for our sailors as they practice in the same boats as we’re sailing in championships,” Legler said. “They’re not [very] different, but it makes the biggest difference mechanically.”

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Yuan Jun Chee On the Spot

Chelsea’s loan policy is bad, bad, bad

I

n a season where Chelsea has been erratic and disappointing to say the least, manager Antonio Conte continues to face pressure for his underperforming team.

In return, the manager has complained that he has not received enough support from the board. This, despite spending an inordinate amount of money on two defenders, a striker and two midfielders this summer, and then another midfielder and striker in the January window — all arguably of first-team quality.

But the fact is that Chelsea’s problems stem from more than just that. One should consider how their inconsistency over the years is tied to the youth setup that the soon-to-be deposed champions have.

Chelsea currently has 38 players out on loan, and their academy has had remarkable success in the FA Youth Cup in recent years. Now, one might question how many of these players could actually be first-team quality. That ultimately is a chicken-or-egg question — how would you really know without giving them a chance? In a period where many Chelsea fans had complained about Tiemoué Bakayoko, perhaps Ruben LoftusCheek could have been given a look. Or Watford’s Nathaniel Chalobah, who was sold

by Conte himself.

The list goes on. Nathan Aké: good enough to make the Dutch national team, but apparently not the Chelsea first team. Ryan Bertrand, England’s most in-form natural left-back right now? What about Tomáš Kalas, Gaël Kakuta, Lucas Piazon? Or Josh McEachran, who was supposed to be the next big thing, who’s now plying his trade at Brentford? More recently, promising youngsters like Kevin De Bruyne and Mo Salah have returned to the Premier League to demonstrate just what Chelsea has missed out on.

The fact of the matter is that other than John Terry, Chelsea has no legacy of handing first-team starts to youngsters. The problem is that when players return from loan, they never get a chance to shine, perhaps with the exception of Andreas Christensen.

That does incredible damage to the club’s reputation and, more importantly, to the players. With all their potential, youngsters should have the opportunity to shine, but instead Chelsea has turned the notion of sustainability on its head; instead of bringing through players from the academy, they buy them cheap and sell them high, so as to then re-invest in the first team. It helps them with Financial Fair Play and brings them occasional success, but nothing more.

This is a function of the failed leadership of Roman Abramovich, who hires and fires managers faster than any other owner in the league. New managers mean players need to once again prove their worth and youngsters often get sidelined.

Perhaps one might ultimately be too harsh on Chelsea. Looking at the top six teams, one could make the case that only Harry Kane has really been a true first-teamer from an academy. While previous and current top managers have handed opportunities to Scott McTominay, Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Phil Foden to name a few, none of them are considered consistent first-teamers at the moment. And that’s because the Premier League demands instant success, forcing clubs to perennially be in win-now mode and as a result, ignore youth development.

But there’s no question that Chelsea is the worst offender of all.

Yuan Jun Chee is a sports editor at the Tufts Daily. Yuan Jun can be reached at yuan.chee@tufts.edu.

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