The Tufts Daily - Thursday, February 27, 2020

MEN’S SWIM AND DIVE

CDAs and FYAs recruited midyear to foster community in dorms following vacancies see FEATURES / PAGE 3

Jumbos set 7 school records in 2nd place NESCAC finish

Weekender: Tufts’ Grossman leads students in modern production of ‘Sense and Sensibility’ see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 4

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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VOLUME LXXIX, ISSUE 23

Thursday, February 27, 2020

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ECOM to address security, accessibility concerns on Voatz election software

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Tufts announces new initiative to combat addiction, substance abuse

by Stephanie Rifkin Assistant News Editor

RACHEL HARTMAN / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

The Voatz voting table is pictured in the Mayer Campus Center on Sept. 17, 2018.

by Caleb Symons Staff Writer

The Tufts Elections Commission (ECOM) will evaluate its use of the application, Voatz, to conduct student government elections following the publication of a report detailing significant security concerns with the app as well as limited voting accessibility to students in a recent election.

ECOM has contracted with Voatz to conduct Tufts Community Union (TCU) elections since September 2017. Students have typically been able to cast their ballots through the Voatz app, its companion web portal or in-person at the Mayer Campus Center.

However, Voatz notified ECOM the night before the TCU Senate special election on Feb. 5 that students would be unable to vote through the company’s web portal, according to Voatz’s Vice President of Product, Hilary Braseth.

That decision was a precautionary measure taken by Voatz to prevent any potential software interference after it received a heightened state of security alert earlier that day, according to Braseth. It also came less than 24 hours after an election app failure roiled the Iowa Democratic caucuses and sparked a national conversation about the reliability of mobile voting.

“We understand that like any company, Voatz is not perfect, which is why when issues occur, as it did during the special

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New funding is now available to support initiatives on campus aimed at preventing and treating addiction and substance abuse, which Provost and Senior Vice President Nadine Aubry and Vice Provost for Research Caroline Genco announced in an email sent out to the Tufts community on Feb. 10.

Both explained that this new program, called the “Tufts Initiative on Substance Use and Addiction,” is a direct result of the Sackler investigation, which led to the removal of the Sackler name from the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the Center for Medical Education building at the Health Sciences campus.

“The University announced in December that it would establish a $3 million endowment to create a new source of seed aimed at the prevention and treatment of substance use and addiction. In this way, the University will create a sustainable effort to help the countless individuals and families who suffer as a result of substance use and addiction,” Aubry wrote in an email.

Genco echoed these statements, indicating that Tufts is not the only school in the Boston area that has looked for solutions to the opioid crisis.

“It basically came from the fact that we have a huge opioid epidemic across the country, and specifically in Massachusetts, and this is something that some of the other universities in Boston have been looking at more closely [we] felt that we needed to do more than we currently were doing.” she said.

Director of the Department of Health Promotion and Prevention Ian Wong commended Tufts’ decision to not only cut ties with the Sackler family, but also to establish a program with a specific focus on combating issues of substance abuse.

“I applaud Tufts for not only reconciling with [the] Sacklers, with the name, but also by actually putting something forward to do prevention,” Wong said. “We should be proud of the university for putting money toward research to solve or to work toward dealing with some of the substance abuse issues out there.”

The Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) has called on community members to submit proposals that aim to encourage research and civic engagement programs with the goal of supporting the prevention and treatment of addiction and substance use, according to its website.

Unlike most other OVPR funds that only consider faculty proposals, this fund is also open to staff and students, according to Genco and Wong.

election, we are in communication with Voatz to improve the voting experience of all students,” ECOM Technician Spencer Ha told the Daily in an email. “ECOM is constantly improving as we strive to promote and facilitate student representation here at Tufts.”

Roughly one-third of the votes in TCU elections are typically cast through Voatz’s web portal, according to Braseth.

Company representatives remained in the Campus Center for an extended period on Feb. 5 in an effort to mitigate the effect of the web portal’s suspension on student participation.

However, just 6.7% of undergraduates ultimately voted in the February special election — down from the 11.2% that voted in the September 2019 TCU elections. While it is impossible to attribute this decline directly to the suspension of web portal-based voting, ECOM members expressed concern that it may have contributed to the depressed turnout.

“Part of the ECOM’s mission has always been to give the Tufts student body multiple ways of electing candidates. The removal of a major method of voting is obviously concerning to ECOM,” Ha, a sophomore, said. “We are currently in discussions with Voatz to bring back the web portal as well as developing a comprehensive plan to make the app more responsive and enjoyable for the Tufts student body.”

Tufts Community Union Senate holds its regular meeting in the Sophia Gordon Hall MultiPurpose Room on Feb. 9.

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see INITIATIVE , page 2

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Thursday, February 27, 2020

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DHS, MIT studies contradict on Voatz security concerns VOATZ

continued from page 1 ECOM had already planned to speak with Voatz representatives about its concerns regarding the decision to suspend voting through the web portal before Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers published a scathing report on Feb. 13 that detailed security vulnerabilities in the Voatz app.

The researchers identified weaknesses in Voatz’s Android application that could allow someone to expose or even alter users’ votes. They concluded that a hacker seeking to disrupt an election would find it relatively easy to attack Voatz’s infrastructure due to the lack of transparency it offers around its back-end software.

That practice, known as “security through obscurity,” makes the app particularly vulnerable to interference, according to Josephine Wolff, assistant professor of cybersecurity policy at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

“If you put your source code out there and the people who test it and can’t find any flaws are doing that rigorously, then you’ve got that layer of protection that somebody — ideally, multiple people — has tried to find these flaws [and] has pinpointed vulnerabilities that you’ve been able to fix,” Wolff said. “Whereas if you don’t do that, then you only have the bad guys trying to figure out where those vulnerabilities are and how to exploit them.”

Voatz markets its use of blockchain technology, which encrypts and stores digital records, as evidence of its ability to secure voters’ ballots. Nonetheless, the existing blockchain protections do not sufficiently ensure election security, according to Wolff.

“The blockchain piece of this is the part that runs on Voatz servers, so we

INITIATIVE

continued from page 1 “We’re really trying to broaden the community of people who could apply for these funds,” Genco said. “We wanted to cast a big net to see who’s out there.”

Wong expressed similar sentiments, indicating that the OVPR wanted to open up this opportunity to all of Tufts in an effort to receive more proposals.

“Everyone’s free to put something in[the application.] I think [that is] what’s really exciting, it’s a call [for proposals],” Wong said. “Anyone can apply and I think that’s what’s really interesting about this … we’re looking for answers anywhere.”

Wong also explained that this initiative will greatly support students who suffer from substance abuse and that many of his colleagues are planning to apply to the

Outreach Coordinators

BUSINESS Jonah Zwillinger Executive Business Director

it out and look for any kinds of security flaws, look for usability flows. Voatz has not really been welcoming or open to that so far.”

Voatz has pushed back on this criticism, noting its bug bounty program invites hackers to find software deficiencies and that it has worked with independent auditors in the past.

The company also claimed the MIT researchers analyzed a version of its Android app that was never used in an election and had been revised at least 27 times before their report was published, allaying many of its conclusions.

While TCU elections are conducted on a much smaller scale, and with significantly lower consequences than the state and county-level elections that use Voatz software, Wolff did not rule out their susceptibility to interference by hackers.

“Once you have the vulnerabilities laid out for you in a neat report, I would say the hard work [for hackers], to a large extent, has been done,” she said.

“On the other hand, if you had a voting app that a lot of security researchers had spent months looking at and hammering all of the vulnerabilities they could find, then finding a new vulnerability in that app probably would require quite a bit of time and resources.”

ECOM Chair Matt Zachem noted that the vulnerability of TCU elections to hacking would be “a cause for concern” and vowed to discuss the security issues with Voatz.

“Depending on how that meeting goes, and whether our concerns are addressed, we may explore switching to a different voting system, one which is more accessible and navigable to students,” Zachem, a sophomore, said.

fund in order to conduct their own research in this field.

“We make [the fund] a more holistic way of helping students with alcohol issues,” Wong said. “It will be really exciting just to see what everyone puts into it because I’ve talked to some of my other colleagues, and they’re excited about applying for money.”

The fund has the potential to turn into a larger effort to battle substance abuse, as its growing influence may lead to new initiatives, according to Genco.

“I think the fund will continue to grow and I think there’s a lot of interest in philanthropy in this area because there’s a lot of people who have experienced hands-on the opioid crisis with one of their family members,” she said. “We give folks some pilot money to start, and then maybe they can identify other areas to help to continue to grow.”

Genco emphasized that senior leadership at Tufts and potential applicants alike are excited to see what proposals will be submitted and which proposals will be granted funding.

“We’re really looking for applications that have high impact and can really make a difference, whether it’s education or civic engagement or research,” Genco said.

Aubry underlined the goals of the initiative and the OVPR’s excitement at reviewing the proposals from Tufts community members.

“We believe our educators, scholars and researchers have important ideas to contribute to addressing the local and national challenges associated with the increase in substance use,” she said.

“We are looking forward to reviewing proposals and distributing the first round of funding this spring,” Aubry said.

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don’t know a lot about the implementation because they haven’t made it accessible to anyone,” Wolff said. “If you’re relying on software as part of something as critical as the election infrastructure in the country, there should be audits that are overseen at some level by the federal government.”

In fact, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, completed a review of Voatz’s internal servers and cloud networks in October 2019. CISA did not find any active or past threats to Voatz’s election infrastructure despite identifying areas where protections could be improved, according to a Voatz summary of the classified report’s conclusions.

The MIT researchers’ study is not the first time Voatz has come under fire for its secretive security policies.

The company drew criticism after it reported an attempt to hack its app during the 2018 midterm elections to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The alleged hacker — a student enrolled in a University of Michigan election security course — appeared to have acted in accordance with the terms of Voatz’s bug bounty program, but the company revised its policy after its FBI referral became public.

Many cybersecurity experts believe companies like Voatz should give outside programmers greater opportunities to review their software in order to identify any weaknesses.

“If we look at the app that was being used in the Iowa caucuses, it was rolled out very, very soon before the caucuses actually happened — people hadn’t had a chance to test it at all,” Wolff said. “A big piece of relying on software is this idea that people have been using it, and they’ve had an opportunity to test

Proposals welcome from students, faculty, staff in new addiction prevention, treatment initiative

by Renner Kwittken

Executive Online Editor

tuftsdaily.com

Burning bean burrito On Feb. 18 at 11:14 a.m., a fire alarm was activated at 12 Dearborn Road. The Somerville Fire Department responded to the scene. Upon investigation, it found an overcooked bean burrito in a microwave to be the source of the burning. No injuries or damages were reported.

Beware barrier On Feb. 20 at 10:45 a.m., a minor colli-

sion was reported in the Cousens Parking Lot. According to the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD), a van struck the support of a barrier and sustained minor damage to the rear passenger side door. No permanent damage or injuries were reported.

Boisterous blowout On Feb. 21 at 12:30 a.m., a noise complaint was made about ATO at 134 Professors Row. TUPD officers arrived on the scene and rang the doorbell for several minutes to no answer.

According to TUPD, one officer went to the

back door and was able to clearly hear the doorbell despite the noise. The officers then were able to enter when another individual left the party. Those at ATO said that they could not hear the doorbell ring over the music.

Bogus blaring On the same day at 8:20 p.m., a fire alarm at a pull station was activated at Wren Hall.

The Medford Fire Department responded with TUPD. Upon investigation, no fire or dangers were present. No suspects were found for the false alarm.

tuftsdaily.com

Features

New CDAs and FYAs build community midyear

Staff Writer

‘Hey, I’m locked out of my room. I’m also really missing home. Where’s 574?

Sorry, I trashed the common room, again.

What’s the Joey schedule?’

These are just a few of the many situations that student staff in the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ORLL) are faced with. Yet, when vacancies arise, there are students willing to step up and serve their peers as CDAs and FYAs. The role of a Resident Assistant (RA) will include both the current First Year Advisor (FYA) and Community Development Assistant (CDA) positions beginning next year.

Due to both planned and unplanned vacancies, more CDAs and FYAs were needed for spring 2020, according to Associate Director of Residential Education Nadia Vargas. Although a difficult task to step up to halfway through the year, there are a few students on campus who were chosen to become new residential staff. These new peer leaders were specifically chosen by their individual qualities to tackle the job, Vargas said.

“It is not easy to start any job, let alone this one, mid-year, so we were very intentional in not only selecting candidates but also [taking] into consideration their strengths when deciding which community type and which floor to place them on, just like we do during the larger selection process,” Vargas said.

Vargas added that some of the new CDAs and FYAs applied for the position last year, knowing that they were going to study abroad for the fall semester, while others learned about the opportunity just this year.

Since they started mid-year, their training looked slightly different than others who started in the fall, according to Vargas.

“We were able to have new staff arrive before the returning staff did at the beginning of the spring semester. They received training on a variety of topics, similar to what we cover during the fall, just not as in-depth,” Vargas said. “We also assigned a returning staff mentor to each new FYA/

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Aadhya Shivakumar What's next

Democrats on marijuana legalization

E

BEN KIM / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHEIVES

Harleston Hall is pictured on Jan. 29, 2019.

by Jillian Collins

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CDA so that they could get peer support in a more intentional manner.”

Junior Cole Friedman, a new CDA in Stratton Hall, found the training to be a very pleasant experience.

“You kind of have to catch up with everyone in January. So that means everyone who is in [ORLL] comes back two days before classes, but new RAs come back [two days] before then …

So what’s great is I actually got to meet all the newbies, which was a nice small community for the two days. We all kind of clung on to each other while we all got to meet our neighborhoods,” Friedman said.

Sophomore Jun Seo, a new CDA in Harleston Hall, saw both positives and negatives in starting halfway through the year.

“You already have a community that you hop right into and it’s already pretty established. At the same time, that can be difficult to establish yourself as [a] new RA,” Seo said.

The idea of building a community is what originally drew Friedman to be a CDA. “I wanted to become an RA because I love the spirit of community that can be really fostered in a hall. I didn’t really have that experience freshman or sophomore year. As a junior, I was like, ‘I want to create that,’” Friedman said.

Although a new face to many of his residents, that hasn’t stopped Friedman from getting to know them, whether it’s through knocking on doors or sending emails.

“I communicate with my residents through email, because they don’t really love social media, and I think you can get clogged up with all the group chats you’re in,” Friedman said. “So what’s actually been so nice is that two residents have responded to my emails, being like, ‘I love your emails, thank you for sending them out, now I really know what’s going on, [and] I really appreciate you trying.’ That just meant a lot to me.”

Friedman sees his job as a CDA as a unique opportunity. Not only does he get to help his residents grow, but he’s also gaining many new skills himself. While

the CDA role doesn’t have anything to do with what Friedman is studying or his future ambitions, it has given him a new outlet to build his interpersonal skills.

“I really appreciate that it is this great opportunity to become more confident in talking to people, become more confident in approaching residents [and] become more confident in reaching out to people. I think that’s what I’m taking out of it … a lot more confidence and a lot more joy out of a living experience,” Friedman said.

Similarly, Seo has grown through carrying out his duties as a CDA. “I didn’t know how to deal with a lot of different situations. But through the training, all the people I have met and the experiences I have, [I] definitely am more mature and confident in my ability to handle certain situations,” he said.

Seo added that being a CDA has also helped him, as a natural introvert, become more social and develop his extroverted side.

New CDAs like Friedman and Seo have gotten positive feedback from both their residents and their ORLL supervisors.

“Their supervisors have … reported back stating that our new staff members are rockstars. I’m sure there have been some trying or learning moments that have popped up for some folks, but our department does not expect anyone taking on such a difficult role to be perfect,” Vargas said. “As much as this position is a job, it is also a leadership opportunity, and we know that leaders need to be given the chance to learn and grow.”

Seo said that his experience so far has shed new light on the full responsibilities of the role, beyond dealing with lockouts and enforcing rules.

“I realized a real RA is something so much more … impactful. A real RA has a responsibility to foster a strong community. In the role of an RA, you have a big role in developing a community from scratch,” Seo said. “As an RA you have to identify all the community needs to see the community trends and build something entirely new.”

lizabeth Warren announced her plan last Sunday to legalize marijuana in the United States. The plan goes beyond legalization. She will also “scrap past federal cannabis convictions and find ways to give people with prior convictions an advantage if they want to work in the legal marijuana industry,” according to Politico. Sen. Warren also promises to prevent “Big Tobacco” from swooping in on the industry. Her plan would not force states to legalize cannabis, but it would “reduce federal funding for law enforcement in states that decide not to legalize cannabis if the racial inequities in arrest rates for marijuana do not improve,” according to Politico. It would also expunge past marijuana convictions.

Warren’s stance on marijuana is more progressive than Aaron Sorkin could have ever dreamed when he wrote “Ellie”: season 2, episode 15 of “The West Wing” (1999–2006). In the episode, Surgeon General Millicent Griffith (Mary Kay Place) is on a radio show when she receives a question about whether she favors the decriminalization of marijuana.

She says, “It’s not for me to say. I can say marijuana poses no greater public health risk than nicotine or alcohol. It doesn’t share the same addictive properties as heroin and LSD. Yet bizarrely to many of us in the healthcare profession, the law categorizes it as a Schedule 1 narcotic while putting a government seal on a pack of cigarettes.”

Griffith’s comments cause an uproar, and the President’s Chief of Staff Leo McGarry asks for her resignation. This is their exchange: GRIFFITH: “We’re spending a billion dollars a year keeping more than 40,000 people locked up.”

LEO: “That’s not your—“ GRIFFITH: “That’s not my jurisdiction.

Which is why I didn’t comment on decriminalization.”

LEO: “Six committee chairs, three House, three Senate, are all talking about hearings … They don’t need to find anything. They need to say your name and ‘drugs’ as many times as possible on television. I don’t think you said anything wrong. Nobody thinks you did anything wrong. I’d like to do the right thing all the time, but I can’t. I can’t let us get bogged down. Government’ll stop. This’ll be what we do for two months. There are more important things.”

Although marijuana legalization may still be a contentious issue, it’s hard to imagine this conversation taking place between a Democratic president and their Surgeon General in 2020. Warren and Bernie Sanders may be the only candidates to have outlined policy positions on the federal legalization of marijuana, but every other candidate currently in the race, besides Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg, has said they believe marijuana should be legalized nationally.

There were 663,367 marijuana arrests in the country in 2018, or one arrest every 48 seconds, according to data from the FBI. The National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics reports there are 11,533 inmates in federal prison for marijuana-related offenses. But there has been a progressive shift in Democratic policy on marijuana, and two-thirds of Americans support marijuana legalization. All this to say: the arguments that the Surgeon General makes in the episode are accurate, and people have started to realize that.

Aadhya Shivakumar is a sophomore studying political science. Aadhya can be reached at aadhya.shivakumar@tufts.edu.

4 Thursday, February 27, 2020

ARTS&LIVING

tuftsdaily.com

‘Sense and Sensibility’ to bring Austen’s classic to modern audience ‘Are You Experi-

Peter Lindblom Oldies But Goodies

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enced’

ven if they are mostly unfamiliar with his music, when people hear the name Jimi Hendrix, most can immediately recall that he is a famous guitarist. And that is fair, as he is undoubtedly on the short list of candidates for the unofficial title of “greatest guitarist ever.” But even that is selling Jimi Hendrix’s musical career short: he completely redefined the arbitrary genre of “rock,” starting with his band’s first album, “Are You Experienced.”

The album immediately launched The Jimi Hendrix Experience — comprised of the man himself, drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding — into the mainstream with its release in 1967. In a year where several noteworthy groups such as The Beatles and The Doors released seminal albums, “Are You Experienced” stood alone for its impressive variety across a whopping 17 tracks.

The album’s first track, “Purple Haze,” sets a high standard for the rest of the record. It is not hard to see how this song became a staple for any classic rock radio station, as the song’s electrifying opening guitar riff will stick with you for days.

As with many of the other tracks on the album, the lyrics are intentionally ambiguous, which suits the psychedelic frenzy of the instruments in this song quite well.

Fans of “Purple Haze” will most assuredly appreciate the other frenetic tracks on the album, including “I Don’t Live Today” and “Fire.”

But what makes “Are You Experienced” even more special is its unique blend of high-speed songs with more mellow, sentimental ones. “The Wind Cries Mary” shines out of that latter group for its contemplative lyrics and simple, balladic structure.

It provides a nice contrast to the songs at its bookends and exhibits Hendrix’s allaround musical talent in that he does not need to be jamming out on his guitar to make a meaningful piece of music.

Another song to listen to on the album is “Third Stone From The Sun,” which is memorable for its exceptional instrumentation across two distinguishable sections.

There are no true lyrics to the song, as that would take away from what I consider to be Hendrix’s most impressive guitar play on the album.

Sadly, Jimi Hendrix passed away at the young and seemingly cursed age of 27 in 1970. Operating within that context, the brilliance of “Are You Experienced” almost makes his death even more tragic, as one can only imagine where his career may have led next. That said, we as an audience should not only think of what could have been; we should instead appreciate the metaphorical heights he reached in so little time. Clearly, as mentioned briefly above, the album not only highlights how talented Hendrix was as a guitarist, but it also displays his impeccable versatility and undeniable chops as a songwriter and vocalist. Yes, the world was deprived of more albums from The Jimi Hendrix Experience, but that should not prevent us from enjoying the nearly flawless “Are You Experienced.”

Peter Lindblom is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Peter can be reached at peter.lindblom@tufts.edu.

by Stephanie Hoechst Executive Video Editor

Between the corsets, accents and obsession with propriety, experiencing a period drama can feel like stepping into another world. For some, that ability for escapism is part of its charm; for others, its rules can make the stories feel alienating.

Barbara Wallace Grossman, a professor in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies and director of the department’s upcoming play “Sense and Sensibility” which is opening this weekend, chose Kate Hamill’s adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel to reconcile these attitudes towards period stories.

Hamill’s adaptation, as well as Grossman’s production, seeks to bring “Sense and Sensibility” to a contemporary audience, blending the classical and contemporary to bring the already-relatable pieces of Austen’s work to a modern audience.

“I think when people first hear Jane Austen, they think of —as they should— Regency period, stiff, propriety [in] England,” first-year Charlotte Magee, who plays Elinor Dashwood, said. “And I think they may perhaps not think of it as somewhat intimidating, but as a separate world from our own. What I like about this production of ‘Sense and Sensibility’ is that the director, Barbara, has attempted to try and make it more relevant to modern day.”

“Sense and Sensibility” follows sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood as the sudden death of their father leaves them, their mother and their younger sister, Margaret, in financial turmoil. As they navigate their new circumstances, Elinor and Marianne also confront new suitors, all while society closely watches their actions.

“These are real people struggling with real issues like financial insecurity, economic instability, injustice [and] intolerance,” Grossman said. “And these are women who have agency within the more circumscribed norms of that world … What drew me particularly to this adaptation is that Hamill really wants us to see parallels to our world today.”

In this production, first-year Alexandra Everbach plays Marianne, the younger, more emotional of the elder Dashwood sisters. “She’s passionate and energetic and lively,” Everbach said. “She’s loyal to her sister, and I really love playing her.”

Elinor, on the other hand, remains more aware of society’s expectations of her and her sister. Magee described, “Elinor is a very level-headed, dutiful, good daughter … [she] prioritizes propriety above anything, and it’s interesting to see that difference between her and her sister Marianne, who is much more emotional and leads with her heart.” Magee said that balancing Elinor’s decorum with the emotional growth she experiences throughout the show has been an acting challenge: “Being able to play her has been extremely rewarding, if not a little difficult trying to strike that balance of propriety and emotional warmth.”

“I just really love how Jane Austen always gives her female characters — and female protagonists, especially — these very relatable qualities that transcend time. You can look at both Elinor and Marianne and see so many aspects of them that everyone can see in themselves,” she said.

While Austen’s original characters deal with relatable issues, this production of “Sense and Sensibility” blends period and

COURTENEY TED SIMPSON

The cast of “Sense and Sensibility” rehearses for a production put on by the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. contemporary elements to contextualize the story for a modern audience, including period remixes of modern songs and the incorporation of the Gossips, characters in Hamill’s adaptation who represent society’s scrutiny of our protagonists’ actions.

Grossman explained, “the Gossips, for [Hamill], represent the toxic impact of social media today, where people are constantly being judged … she uses the personification of the Gossips to really become this toxic force that has the potential to destroy the lives of the main characters and almost succeeds in doing it.”

Magee added, “they’re present in almost every scene, lurking around the edges of the stage, listening for bits of information that they can go and spread as well … I think there’s a particular scrutiny for the two sisters that can also be likened to all the scrutiny that women in the public eye tend to undergo that isn’t always the same for men.”

Grossman, Magee and Everbach all said that working on this particular production, especially working with this group, has been an incredibly rewarding experience.

“I could not have asked for a more wonderful group of people,” Grossman said.

“Dedicated, conscientious, responsible, creative, imaginative, willing to take risks, incredibly supportive of one another, incredibly cooperative … My favorite part, as always, has been the creative collaboration. I think that’s what draws us to theater,

both as audience members and as practitioners.”

For Everbach, getting to work with Grossman has been one of her favorite parts as well. “I’m so grateful that I get to work with her, especially my first year at Tufts. She gives you a lot of freedom on how to present your character … She directs you, but she also lets you make it your own.”

For Grossman, “Sense and Sensibility” has been an opportunity to engage in a story that is optimistic and celebrates positive themes.

“We live in a very difficult cultural moment where there’s so much anxiety, there’s so much acrimony, there’s so much anger, there’s so much noise that I felt I wanted to do something that wasn’t purely escapist,” Grossman said. “But on the other hand, I wanted to do something that celebrated the power of joy, goodness, faith, family, love, friendship, loyalty, dedication, civility, rather than the polar opposites.”

“It’s kind of for everyone. It’s not targeted for a specific audience. Whoever comes, you’re going to find something you love about it. There are so many aspects about it that people can relate to,” Everbach said.

“Sense and Sensibility” will be showing in the Balch Arena Theater Feb. 27-29 and March 5-7 at 8 p.m, with a March 7 matinee at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the Aidekman Box Office or online at Tufts Drama and Dance Tickets.

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CORRECTION A previous version of the article “Students seek to bring greater school spirit to Tufts sporting events” misattributed a quote from Brigid Gliwa. The quote was misattributed to Brett Rojas, when it was in fact from Gliwa. The article has been updated to reflect this change. The Daily regrets this error.

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CROSSWORD

Opinion

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Support survivors Content warning: This article discusses sexual violence.

This epidemic of rape, abuse and victim-blaming cannot continue. Multiple recent articles have highlighted how Tufts “leaves the … community vulnerable” to sexual violence, fails survivors in “both the initial acts of violence and… afterward” and describes the community’s reaction as “all too similar to the cold night in the tent city,” “vicious words… indistinguishable from [abusers’]” and “the secondary assault of your withering glares and whitewashing lies.”

The anonymity of these articles points to the lack of support for survivors of sexual violence at Tufts. When fear of retaliation makes anonymity required for disclosures, and our spaces do not welcome survivors as their whole selves, we fail to practice the values of inclusion and justice that we claim to uphold.

We must fight back against campus sexual violence.

We must point out and dispel the myths that surround sexual violence. Alcohol, mixed signals, lack of clarity and societal norms are no excuse for assault. Consent must always be freely given, reversible, informed, enthusiastic and specific. It cannot be obtained through coercion or from someone who is incapacitated. Consent is necessary for non-sexual touching as well as sexual activity.

We must learn how to intervene as bystanders and act to prevent sexual violence. Tufts Green Dot’s three bystander intervention tactics are Direct, Delegate, and Distract. An example of direct intervention is explaining to the aggressor the impact of their actions. Another intervention tactic could be causing a distraction, such as spilling a drink or starting a differ-

ent conversation with one of the people involved in the situation. Finally, delegating involves enlisting other bystanders or event monitors to take action where you may be less able to do so. This range of intervention methods allows any bystander to take action in whatever way is best suited for their comfort level and specific situation.

We must challenge anti-survivor sentiment everywhere we go. We cannot tolerate this rape culture in spaces where we hold power. We cannot allow those who cause harm to avoid accountability. Our collective failure to take action has emboldened some to perpetrate without consequences and discouraged survivors from seeking the support they need. Ninety-four percent of those who experienced sexual violence at Tufts did not report the incident to the Office of Equal Opportunity, according to a survey conducted in 2017. Male perpetrators are “more likely to commit sexual violence in communities where sexual violence goes unpunished.” Neutrality and inaction have allowed rape culture to flourish. We cannot let this continue.

We must own our mistakes and learn from them. We may not be able to prevent every assault, or immediately transform Tufts culture into one that supports survivors, but we should work towards these goals.

The best way to move forward from here is to show support for survivors and work to change the culture at Tufts and beyond.

Though no space at Tufts is free or safe from sexual assault perpetration, we are also armed and capable with the skills and resources to work to end this epidemic and move our outrage towards action. Use your feelings of anger and frustration to organize the groups and communities you’re involved with to take action. Start conversations with your friends, such as by asking, “how can you make sure your casual pregames are safe for everyone?” or “how can you check-in with each other both at events

and after to make sure everyone is feeling safe and secure?” Take those conversations even further. Writing Codes of Conduct for your organizations, as well as completing trainings and workshops in bystander intervention, responding to disclosures and responding to perpetration are great places to start. Don’t let your anger fade, but instead use it to create a safer campus for everyone at Tufts and ensure that survivors are feeling safe and heard.

This support means listening to those in your community who have stepped forward and are taking on the burden of public acknowledgment. It means not succumbing to rumors, but taking them as testimony. Validate the survivor’s narrative and tell them you believe them. Be that support when society and many others may not be providing it. It means following the survivor’s wishes, using their language and helping them as they seek their form of justice. It could mean your social circles change. Know when to offer other resources on campus to the survivor: the Center for Awareness, Resources, and Education office is a great place to start. Make sure to know and think about your own limits and boundaries as well.

The author of the Tier Town articles pointed out that “the ‘support’ in ‘support survivors’ is a verb. It requires more than saying that you are supportive. It means not wallowing in complicit inaction or neutrality.

It means holding perpetrators and enablers accountable. It means taking action in the pursuit of safety and justice.”

We must do better. It’s not an impossible ask to urge the Tufts community to not allow perpetrators to go unchecked and survivors to struggle without support. There is no perfect way to support survivors and end the cycle of victim-blaming. Simply believing survivors and offering them comfort is the “support” that we urge you to join us in adding to the community at Tufts.

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Thursday, February 27, 2020

Spencer Christiansen 2020 Vision

OP-ED

by Leah Muskin-Pierret, Marley Hillman and Parker Killenberg

7

What is electability?

I

f one word were to sum up the tension of the 2020 Democratic primary race, it would have to be “electability.” Beating Donald Trump in the general election is forefront in the minds of democratic voters. Ever since the beginning of the race, discussions about the candidates’ platforms have been second to questions like, “but can they win swing states?” After the Nevada Caucuses, one thing is clear: Bernie Sanders is the frontrunner. The candidate perhaps most attacked for his supposed lack of electability has thus far done the best in the election.

Our notions of electability are largely based on who has won in the past. Because of this, it isn’t shocking that many thought Biden was the most likely to bring together a winning coalition. He is the most similar to presidents of the past; his folksy speaking style and anecdotal tendencies are reminiscent of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. He also has had a long career in Washington, making him seemingly qualified. This combined with his centrist rhetoric made him, at least according to the conventional wisdom of the pundit class, the unity candidate.

The idea of Biden as electable and Sanders as alienating fails to take into account a key reality of our political environment: we no longer live in the past. A look at the two most recent occupants of the White House should make it clear that the last thing the American people want to vote for is a safe, establishment, status-quo candidate.

Barack Obama was young, inspiring and different. His message of empowerment and change brought together a groundswell of support. Donald Trump, although nearly the opposite of the young senator from Illinois who would go on to win the presidency, represented to his cadre of supporters a similar message; while not young, Trump made his supporters feel heard, set himself apart from Washington and convinced them that the change they hoped to see was possible. Both Obama and Trump inspired their respective bases and used their individual charisma to convince their supporters to hope and believe.

Biden, like Clinton in 2016, looks great on paper. He is the embodiment of what Democratic party insiders think the rest of the country wants to vote for. The problem is that party insiders don’t really know what the rest of the country wants. Sanders, although he has been in D.C. for many years, is seen as an outsider. His policy proposals are big and ambitious, and he attacks the existing political order that candidates like Clinton and Biden personify.

His support is broad-based, a fact that is reflected in his massive grassroots funding as well as his resounding win in Nevada, the first state with substantial diversity, in which he got a greater share of the vote than Biden, Buttigieg and Warren combined. Like Obama and Trump before him, Sanders is bold, different and supposedly unelectable. But, like our last two presidents, he is winning anyway.

Spencer Christiansen is a sophomore studying international relations. Spencer can be reached at spencer.christiansen@ tufts.edu.

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

8 Thursday, February 27, 2020

Alex Sharp Game Day

From standing room only to NHL goalie

tuftsdaily.com

Men’s swim and dive finishes 2nd at NESCAC championships for 2nd straight year

I

n 1996, the American public was introduced to a professional golfer who, despite an unorthodox swing, could drive the ball further than just about anyone. His name was Happy Gilmore.

Gilmore was a man of the people, often competing in a tattered pair of sweatpants and a Boston Bruins jersey. He cussed on national television like a truck driver, punched anyone who messed with him in the face and rode his golf club like a bull when he hit a great shot. Ultimately, he defeated the great Shooter McGavin in the tour championship, allowing him to buy his grandmother a house. The fans didn’t love Happy Gilmore because he was a winner or a phenomenal physical specimen; they loved him because when they watched him compete they didn’t see the usual superstar athlete, they saw themselves.

There have been plenty of great games in the past two weeks: a competitive NBA All-Star game, a potential college basketball final four preview between then No. 1 Baylor and No. 3 Kansas and a thrilling edition of the NBA’s greatest rivalry between the Celtics and the Lakers. Though basketball dominated the headlines, the best game I saw took place on the ice last Saturday between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The game was more exciting than those on the hardwood because sports fans got to experience a Happy Gilmore-esque moment. Forty-two-year-old David Ayres, an operations manager and part-time Zamboni driver, stepped onto the ice for Carolina midway through the second period. Wait, what?

The NHL requires home teams to have an emergency goalie in their arena for each game. If both of a team’s goalies are injured, the emergency goalie suits up and plays the remainder of the game. Ayres, who played junior league hockey, has been Toronto’s emergency goalie for three years. Ayres was in his usual spot Saturday in the standing room only section of Carolina’s PNC Arena when the Hurricanes’ starting goalie James Reimer was injured in a collision. The backup goalie, Petr Mrazek, was later forced to exit after suffering a concussion.

With Carolina leading 3–1, in came Ayres, a guy who could relate more to the fans in the stands than the players on the rink. It wasn’t a pretty start for Ayres as the Maple Leafs scored two goals on him with two shots in less than two minutes.

Despite the rocky start, Ayres settled in nicely and saved the last eight shots he faced. The Hurricanes scored two goals in the third period, making Ayres the oldest goalie in NHL history to win his debut.

With a bright grin, red cheeks and sweat dripping down his face, Ayres told Sportsnet’s Kyle Bukauskas “[i]t was awesome. Time of my life out there.” Ayres was compensated with $500 and allowed to keep his game-worn jersey.

Every kid grows up dreaming of playing their favorite sport at the highest level.

On Saturday night, David Ayres got to live his dream for 28 minutes and 41 seconds.

That’s awesome.

Alex Sharp is a first year who has not yet declared a major. Alex can be reached at alex.sharp@tufts.edu

COURTESY TUFTS ATHLETICS

Senior Roger Gu is pictured.

by Ethan Ling Staff Writer

The men’s swim and dive team traveled to Williams to compete at the NESCAC Championships over the weekend. Hoping to upset the host team and retake the top spot in the conference, the Jumbos finished as runners-up for the second consecutive year.

Finishing the meet with 1797.5 points — a higher point total from a season ago — Tufts narrowly trailed first-place Williams (1987.5 points) throughout the meet. The Jumbos put up fantastic performances across every session, but the balance and depth of the Ephs proved insurmountable as they successfully defended their title.

“The team was great this weekend,” coach Adam Hoyt said. “We showed a lot of the toughness that was needed to be successful over a four-day meet, especially stepping up and performing well on [the final day].”

The Jumbos started off the meet with a hard-fought third-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay. The foursome of sophomore Nate Tingen, junior Tyler Tatro, sophomore Victor Vollbrechthausen and sophomore Tar Tar Jarusinchai grappled with Amherst and Bates for second place. Jarusinchai’s blazing anchor split of 1:40.34 nearly pulled the team even with the Mammoths, but the Jumbos ultimately settled for third in 6:44.59, just under a second out of second place.

Trailing after the first day of competition, things quickly turned in favor of the Jumbos. Senior Roger Gu and junior John LaLime led the way with 88 and 90 individual point efforts, respectively, each capturing two conference titles. In the sprints, Gu successfully defended his titles and set pool records in both

the 50-yard freestyle (19.78) and 100yard freestyle (43.87). With his swims, Gu capped off an illustrious four-year NESCAC stint with five individual titles.

“I’m happy with how my races went this weekend,” Gu said. “Given more rest and refinement in practice, I’m excited to see where it goes [at NCAAs].”

LaLime was equally successful in the distance disciplines, earning his first-ever conference titles and setting pool records in both the 1000-yard freestyle (9:22.89) and the 1650-yard freestyle (15:38.87). After missing the podium his first two years, LaLime finally had his long-awaited breakthrough to the forefront of an incredibly competitive field of NESCAC distance swimmers.

“Last year, I had a rough, rough meet.

I wasn’t sure if I could bounce back,” LaLime said. “But I was, and am, surrounded by the best coaches, teammates, friends and family in the whole world. I realized I perform the best when I’m just happy … It feels weird to say, but I was happy this weekend and I think it came out in my swimming, not the other way around.”

Behind these individual efforts, the rest of the team rallied and put up great swims across the board. In the 50-yard breaststroke, senior Matt Manfre pulled slightly ahead from a tightly bunched field to touch second in a time of 25.34, breaking the then 11-year-old school record that he had set in the preliminaries. Senior co-captain Costa Camerano led the Jumbos in the 100-yard butterfly with a second place time of 49.23, narrowly finishing ahead of first-year Joshua Balbi who settled for fourth in 49.39.

Jarusinchai jumped the gun early in the 200-yard breaststroke, going out at a blistering 58.03 pace before finishing third in a new school record time of 2:03.15.

In the backstrokes, Tingen utilized great

underwaters to capture second place in both the 100-yard (49.38) and 200-yard (1:49.04) races. Aside from their individual performances, the Jumbos also captured titles in the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle relays, setting pool, meet and school records in both. In the final race of the meet, the team of firstyear Peter Labarge, Tingen, junior JJ Batt and Gu set a record time of 2:59.52 in the 400-yard freestyle, setting an all-time NESCAC record. With the Jumbos and Mammoths neck-and-neck going into the final stretch, Gu threw down a monstrous 43.05 anchor leg to run down the Mammoths and cap off the competition with a hard-fought victory.

“Throughout the meet, we harped on a theme of ‘I can’t but we can,’ and immediately after the race, that was the first thing that went through my mind,” Gu said. “Being able to finish off that relay with a win made me really grateful for all of the opportunities I’ve had with the team, and I’m sad that this is the last conference meet I will be participating in.”

Overall, Tufts had a very successful championship weekend filled with fast swims across the team. The Jumbos captured seven conference titles en route to establishing seven school records and 21 NCAA B cuts.

Next up, the men’s team will travel to Greensboro, N.C. in three weeks for the NCAA National Championships.

“I’m very excited to see the team compete at NCAAs and believe they’re on track to put together some great performances,” Hoyt said. “I believe that we’re ready for the NCAA Championships and really just need to keep doing what we’ve done all season long which is work hard, stay focused, support each other and continue learning about how to get better at executing great performances.”