The Tufts Daily - Monday, October 29, 2018 by The Tufts Daily

Tufts students turn entrepreneurship class project into ridesharing app CarTrek see FEATURES / PAGE 3

MEN’S SOCCER

Colby upsets Tufts in tense penalty shootout

‘Cecilia Vicuña: Disappeared Quipu’ honors Andean culture, resistance under colonialism see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 5

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

THE

INDEPENDENT

STUDENT

N E W S PA P E R

TUFTS

UNIVERSITY

E S T. 1 9 8 0

T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXVI, ISSUE 36

tuftsdaily.com

Monday, October 29, 2018

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Tufts, U of Ala. duo receive National Science Foundation grant by Daisy Hu

Contributing Writer

Barry Trimmer, a Henry Bromfield Pearson Professor of Natural Sciences in the Tufts biology department, and his colleague Vishesh Vikas, former biology postdoctoral scholar at Tufts and current assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama, received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant in September for their project, “M3SoRo: Mobility and Morphing using Modular Soft Robots.” The purpose of the grant is “to develop collaborative Modular Soft Robots (MSoRos) that can move in complex terrestrial and climbing environments and change size and shape,” according to the award abstract. The abstract explains that the project, estimated to be completed by August 2021, has been awarded $382,192 in funding. According to a February article published in Materials Research Society Advances, soft robots are elastic, flexible robots that contain all major power and control systems in one body. These differ from hard robots, which are rigid, more complex and built in a way that separates their functions across different components.

NSF gave the grant as part of its National Robotics Initiative, according to Vikas, the principal investigator of the grant. Vikas explained that the goal of the project is to explore the advantages of soft robots and modular robots and come up with models of soft robots which are cheap, versatile and adaptive to complex environments. He added that the field of soft robots and modular robots is under-researched despite applications in precision agriculture, space exploration and disaster relief. According to Vikas, locomotion functions differently in different types of environments. He said that the project uses an environment-centric algorithm that investigates the robot’s interactions with the environment, instead of using the traditional model-centric algorithm that focuses on what humans want the robot to do. Trimmer said that traditional robots are constrained by their working environments. They cannot work near people or carry out tasks in complex environments, while modular soft robots can. According to Anthony Scibelli, a biology Ph.D. candidate working in Trimmer’s lab, soft robots are not designed to resemble humans and perform delicate tasks but to navigate and function in environments that are not suitable for humans.

EVAN SLACK / THE TUFTS DAILY

Barry Trimmer, director of the Neuromechanics and Biomimetic Devices Laboratory, poses for a portrait with one of his robots on Oct. 17. That requires that the robots are able to move on different surfaces and around obstacles. A major goal of the project is to control soft robots, a challenge many researchers are trying to tackle, according to Trimmer. Trimmer, who is also the director of the Neuromechanics and Biomimetic Devices Laboratory at Tufts, said that

studying the brains of soft animals, like caterpillars, can bring the solution to controlling soft robots. “That’s why a neurobiologist like me is involved in robot research, because we think we know some of the tricks that see NSF GRANT, page 2

Protein sequences meet music at interdisciplinary performance of faculty, student compositions by Anton Shenk

Contributing Writer

A unique take on classical music filled Distler Performance Hall in the Granoff Music Center on Friday with the premiere of “New at Noon: Living Patterns,” an interdisciplinary performance of six musical compositions inspired by repetitive protein sequences. The concert, a collaboration between faculty and student composers and Stephen Fuchs, an assistant professor of biology, offered experimental music inspired by Fuchs’ research. Fuchs shared where the idea for this unique event came from and the goals of the collaboration. “[Professor of Music John McDonald] and I have been talking for years about doing some collaboration between music and science,” Fuchs said. “I was trained as a musician as well … [scientists] think creatively too, but not in the same way as musicians.” Fuchs said that one of the goals of the collaboration was to “use other

Please recycle this newspaper

Showers 56 / 39

/thetuftsdaily

mediums to pull out new information and better understand science,” while another goal was to bridge the gap between scientists and non-scientists. “The things we do in our labs — for people who aren’t scientists — is totally unapproachable,” he said. “Maybe we can use music as a conduit to better raise awareness of the science that we do.” In support of these goals, McDonald drew on research by the Department of Biology on RNA and protein sequences to create a musical structure for his composition, using a musical cryptogram to link musical notes with letters representing proteins. He also used repetitions in the RNA sequence and pauses in the music where the repetitions broke down in creating his piece. McDonald also worked with his students to help develop their own interpretations of the protein sequences. When talking about how his students’ approach, he said that they all started in a similar place. “Everyone had their own code, which turned [the sequence] into [a] musical structure,” he said.

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

tuftsdaily

Among the featured works were two vocal pieces, two piano pieces, a bassoon piece and a viola piece. Julia Cavallaro, artist of one of the vocal pieces, said her composition was inspired by the separation of children from their mothers and fathers along the U.S.-Mexico border. The piece, called “Speak to Speak,” drew upon words that were “simple, powerful, and active, evoking sometimes violent imagery,” according to the brochure handed out at the event. “I began to play with possible translations, treating each protein letter as the start of a short, one-syllable English word,” Cavallaro wrote in the brochure. Cavallaro’s composition was not the only vocal piece inspired by the same protein sequence. “Manic Nocturne,” performed by first-year graduate music student Adam Simon, was inspired by Simon’s inability to sleep one night. According to the show’s program, Simon was trying to fall asleep at 2 a.m. when he referred to an email from McDonald about a collection of RNA sequences for his composition. “[I was looking at] the very letters supposedly responsible for why I can’t sleep,”

Simon wrote, referring to the sequences’ impact on his biological clock. “The sequences on that page were associated with whether or not you are a ‘night’ or a ‘morning’ person.” McDonald also used the concert as an opportunity to raise awareness for all of the current and future collaborations between the music department and other academic disciplines. He said that Fuchs may use the music to help teach his lectures, while highlighting the music engineering minor and the film and media studies program as two existing collaborations. Aaron Wong, a senior who wrote and performed the bassoon piece, “Sequences,” told the Daily in an email the difficulties of composing his piece. “I’d never worked with a text before, let alone protein sequences. It was a challenge to write a piece that was both musically interesting and that conveyed the repetitive patterns in some form,” Wong said. He said that the format worked for all. “All the composers took their own unique approach, and all worked extremely well,” Wong said.

NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................3 ARTS & LIVING.......................5

FUN & GAMES.........................8 OPINION.....................................9 SPORTS............................ BACK

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Monday, October 29, 2018

THE TUFTS DAILY Seohyun Shim Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL

Sean Ong Caleb Symons Managing Editors Alexis Serino Daniel Nelson Jessica Blough Charlie Driver Jenna Fleischer Juliana Furgala Kat Grellman Liza Harris Gil Jacobson Anar Kansara Liam Knox Simran Lala Natasha Mayor Cathy Perloff Minna Trinh Hannah Uebele Shantel Bartolome Austin Clementi Conor Friedmann Abbie Gruskin Kunal Kapur Noah Richter

Associate Editor Executive News Editor News Editors

Assistant News Editors

Jessie Newman Constantinos Angelakis Emma Damokosh Jenna Fleischer Kenia French Ameenah Rashid Michael Shames Grace Yuh Sidharth Anand Kevin Doherty Jacob Fried Justin Yu Tommy Gillespie Antonio Bertolino John Fedak Libby Langsner Setenay Mufti Julian Blatt Stephanie Hoechst Christopher Panella Ruijingya Tang

Executive Features Editor Features Editors

Deeksha Bathini Jesse Clem Maria Fong Shannon Geary Nasrin Lin Lydia Ra Rebecca Tang Emily Burke Carrie Haynes Joseph Lim Yuan Jun Chee Ryan Eggers Liam Finnegan Savannah Mastrangelo Arlo Moore-Bloom Maddie Payne Haley Rich Brad Schussel Delaney Tantillo Tim Chiang Sejal Dua Jeremy Goldstein David Meyer Josh Steinfink Ethan Zaharoni David Nickerson Rachel Hartman Anika Agarwal Erik Britt Andrea Chavez Allison Culbert Mike Feng Kenar Haratunian Lyndon Jackson Ben Kim Christine Lee Julia McDowell Rachael Meyer Madeleine Oliver Quinn Pham Evan Slack Alina Strileckis Kirt Thorne Max Lalanne Ana Sophia Acosta Annette Key Asha Iyer

Executive Opinion Editor Cartoonists

Assistant Features Editors

Executive Arts Editor Arts Editors

Assistant Arts Editors

Editorialists Executive Sports Editor Sports Editors

Assistant Sports Editors

Investigative Editor Executive Photo Editor Photo Administrator Staff Photographers

Executive Video Editors Video Editor

PRODUCTION Alice Yoon

Production Director Aidan Menchaca Daniel Montoya Amanda Covaleski Connor Dale Anna Deck Jordan Isaacs Maygen Kerner Omeir Khan Isabella Montoya Katharine Pinney Luke Allocco David Levitsky Sara Bass Caroline Bollinger Mary Carroll Myshko Chumak Zachary Hertz Anna Hirshman Will Hollinger Rachel Isralowitz Tess Jacobson Maria Kim Katie Martensen Lillian Miller Ali Mintz Netai Schwartz Nihaal Shah Liora Silkes Hannah Wells Jiayu Xu Avni Ambalam Leah Boisvert Sarah Crawford Dylan Koh Allie Morgenstern Abbie Treff Yuval Wolf Ani Hopkins Ercan Sen Amy Tong Asli Akova Elisabeth Blossom Shaivi Herur

Executive Layout Editors Layout Editors

Executive Graphics Editor Executive Copy Editors Copy Editors

Assistant Copy Editors

Executive Online Editor Senior Online Editor Executive Social Media Editors Social Media Editor Assistant Social Media Editors

BUSINESS Joe Walsh

Executive Business Director

tuftsdaily.com

Biology professor, former postdoc research biomechanics with soft robots NSF GRANT

continued from page 1 animals employ to control their bodies and we can try to adapt that to engineering,” he said. Trimmer explained that the current task of the project is more about figuring out the basics of how to control soft robots than building a perfect one. Scibelli said the project’s goal is to use biological design to solve complex locomotion problems. William Messner, a Tufts mechanical engineering professor who worked with Trimmer on the award proposal, said that the challenge of the project is understanding the movements of the robots, specifically climbing and the control of tendons.

In addition to being more adaptable than hard robots, soft robots are less expensive. Unlike traditional robots, they do not have to balance themselves while working, which makes them relatively simple and thus cost-effective, according to Scibelli. Vikas said that the project’s collaborators have complementary skill sets, ranging from mechanical engineering to neurobiology. He added that he worked closely with Trimmer on the project, meeting online twice a week to brainstorm and sometimes exchanging student research assistants. According to Scibelli, he and four others are working with Trimmer at the Neuromechanics and Biomimetic Devices Laboratory. Trimmer men-

tioned that though there are no undergraduate students working on the project yet, interested undergraduates are welcome to join the team. Trimmer said that the NSF money might be used to purchase necessary materials for the project or to hire graduate student research assistants. Scibelli said that the NSF grant provided him funding for two years of research and that it might also be used to purchase and maintain 3D printers, which have been used to print out soft robots models. “When we complete this project, we will be able to show young minds the real-life morphing soft robots that will excite the next generation to get attracted towards robotics,” Vikas said.

TCU Senate discusses updated protest policy by Noah Richter

Assistant News Editor

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate met Sunday night in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room to hear supplementary funding requests and committee updates and discuss the student code of conduct’s updated protest policy. TCU Treasurer Izzy Ma, a sophomore, started the meeting by introducing a series of supplementary funding requests from student groups. The body approved supplementary funding requests for the following groups: $924 to the Vietnamese Students Club for a Loj retreat, $2,218 to Tufts oSTEM to attend an oSTEM national conference in Houston, $450 to the Muslim Students Association for a guest speaker to meet the organization, $560 to GlobeMed to attend the GlobeMed Hilltop Conference at Columbia University and $405 to the Global China Connection for a group tour of the Peabody Essex Museum. Next, TCU President Jacqueline Chen, a senior, opened the body for several general updates from Senate members. The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts (SMFA) Liaison Maia Lei, a junior, shared that the SMFA is extending its café for students to have further options. She also noted that there will be ongoing construction at the SMFA campus for the next several weeks. Trustee Representative Insiya Naim, a member of the Outreach Committee, told the body that the committee is currently working to improve the TCU Senate’s social media presence. “We want more people to be aware of the changes that Senate is making for the student

body, and we also want students to know about the opportunities they have to get involved in making those changes,” Naim, a sophomore, told the Daily in an email. She added that the committee is also working on a new student organization events calendar. Class of 2021 Senator Griffen Saul shared that he met with Student Accessibility Services to discuss the possibility of having greater shuttle access on the upper and lower campuses for students with limited mobility. “The purpose of the meeting was to foster a greater understanding of the steps Tufts is currently taking, if any, to improve the physical accessibility, intellectual developmental disabilities services and mental health programs on campus,” Saul told the Daily in an interview. Then, TCU Vice President Adam Rapfogel, a senior, introduced Committee of Student Life (CSL) Co-Chair Charlie Zhen, a senior, to discuss the protest policy shift with the Senate. According to Zhen, the updated policy change mandates that student protests exceeding 25 people are registered with the administration for approval. He added that, according to the administration, the policy shift has been made so they can better manage security concerns. He shared that CSL is currently reviewing the policy change, and told Senate that the voices of students are being considered. He also highlighted that CSL currently has open student seats. The discussion then opened up for questions and comments from the Senate body. Most notable were several concerns raised by various senators about the administration’s usage of the word “approve” in the policy as well as their concern regard-

ing the enforcement and vague consequences for punishment in the new policy. “Any event that occurs on campus and is expected to attract more than 25 people — including a protest, gathering, or demonstration — must be registered in advance and approved through the event registration process managed by the Office for Campus Life (OCL),” the policy reads. Zhen told the body that the intention of university approval is not to decide which event it will allow, but rather a way to ensure events are registered. Class of 2021 Senator Ayden Crosby, a former member of the CSL, explained to the body the administration’s justification for the policy shift. “One of the reasons that [the administrators] want this registration aspect [is] so that they’re sitting the organizers down and saying, ‘okay, have you thought of this, or have you thought of this,’” he said. “It’s not intended to discourage people from protesting.” When asked about the vague nature of the enforcement methods of the updated protest policy, Zhen said that “the intention of the rule is not to punish students, and so the purpose is not to figure out what the punishment is.” The discussion was also met with push back from Class of 2019 Senator Klavs Takhtani. “That’s not a good enough reason, that’s just something the administration is going to end up saying. [The protests] are meant to be disruptive,” Takhtani said. The Senate had a closed discussion at the end of the meeting to review the structure of the Board of Trustees so that Senate members could better understand where to direct the requests and thoughts of the larger Tufts body.

Monday, October 29, 2018

Features

Tufts students launch startup offering long-distance shared rides

3 tuftsdaily.com

Quinn Pham Human

Clutter and declutter

COURTESY MIKAYLA ROSE

CarTrek co-founders senior Adon Shapiro, junior Mikayla Rose, junior Olive Baerde and senior Ross Wood meet with mentors in the Venture Lab in July. by Jessie Newman

Executive Features Editor

CarTrek is one of the newest entrepreneurial efforts coming from Tufts, specifically from a team of four students who brought an idea for a class project to life. The company offers a long-distance carpooling service, connecting drivers with riders going in the same direction for trips between one and five hours. Junior Olive Baerde developed the idea for CarTrek while taking an entrepreneurship class at Tufts. Baerde explained that the process of bringing the idea to fruition has had its ups and downs in part because, at the beginning, no one on their team had the necessary skill set to create an app. “The process was long and hard because I started this idea during my [first-year] spring semester at my [ELS 101 Entrepreneurship and Business Planning],” Baerde said. “I had a great team who loved the idea. However, none of us [were coders], so we could not make it happen.” However, through word of mouth and different social media platforms, Baerde recruited the rest of the team. Mikayla Rose, also a junior, joined the CarTrek team at the start of last spring. “[Olive and I] were in the same marketing class … I was super intrigued mostly because of the human connection component. I thought it was a … unique version of travel that allows for a sort of exploration of not only a place but also like the people that you’re with, which is kind of overlooked oftentimes,” Rose said. Baerde and Rose both shared that CarTrek is different from other forms of transportation such as Uber, Lyft and bus services because sharing a small, intimate car space for several hours provides passengers with the opportunity to have authentic, in-depth conversations. According to Baerde, CarTrek aims to be an affordable transportation option by frequently comparing their prices to those of their competitors. The team uses these price checks to ensure they are providing the most affordable companion-focused travel experience.

“We always do a price analysis of what [the] bus charges and what the train charges and find the best price,” Baerde said. Before Baerde came to Tufts, they spent some time in Spain where they used an app that became the inspiration for CarTrek. “It wasn’t until when I was about to miss my flight back to Madrid, and someone at my walking tour told me about BlaBlaCar, which is a carpooling app that matches you with other riders and [a] driver who are going to the same destination,” Baerde said. “My BlaBlaCar ride cost less than me trying to change [my] flight, and I made three friends during the six hours drive.” Baerde was surprised that there was not a similar option when she came to Tufts, which inspired them to take their CarTrek idea beyond the classroom. One of the biggest challenges for the team has been making this transition from students working on a project to founders of a realworld enterprise, according to Ross Wood, who is also a co-founder. “It’s been really interesting getting out of ‘school mode’ and taking things into a more professional environment,” Wood, a senior, told the Daily in an email. Rose said that finding motivation without being under the watchful eye of a professor or another person has been difficult but rewarding. “It is tough to not have someone looking over your shoulder saying ‘you’re doing great’ or ‘you need to step it up.’ We’re kind of holding each other accountable and so that’s been an interesting thing to learn how to do, but I do not think that is a setback,” Rose said. Baerde explained how everyone in the founding team plays their own role and complements one another well, comparing their own spontaneity to Rose’s detail-oriented nature. According to Baerde, senior Adon Shapiro does tech development for the business — mainly consisting of the website’s construction — while Wood works with Baerde on operations. “I think that you hear all the time that startups aren’t successful just because of the idea. They’re successful because of the people that are working on it. I have

full faith in Olive,” Rose said. “We are … go-getters and I think that’s a pretty cool partnership,” Rose said. During this past summer, the CarTrek team was part of the Gordon Institute’s New-Venture Summer Accelerator. According to the program’s website, “The New-Venture Summer Accelerator provides selected Tufts startups/ new-ventures with comprehensive and thoughtful guidance, mentoring, support, connections, and resources to start and grow their business along a tailored curriculum.” Rose said that the accelerator program provided some “bootstrap” — that is, minimal — funding for the startup to cover living costs and other necessities. Wood said that the mentorship that Gordon Institute lecturer Tina Weber gave as part of the accelerator program has played an integral role in the development of CarTrek. “Tina Weber, who ran the Tufts Summer Accelerator this summer, was more than just a mentor,” Wood said. “[She] put so much time in nurturing our ideas, our group dynamics and helping us through every moment.” Rose said that as CarTrek is still in development. “We are looking to add more functionality to our website and make it a little bit more user friendly,” Rose said. “We are also adding dimensions where you can share Spotify playlists and see mutual connections on Facebook.” The team is looking forward to tapping the market of Boston’s large number of universities before expanding to other areas of New England. “I think that our initial market that we’re trying to capture is really the Boston hub of travel, specifically within the student bodies [of ] Boston … It would be an awesome market [especially] to get those who travel from Boston to New York … on a weekly basis for like recent grads and college students,” Rose said. “From there, we’re … looking into different regions that have a similar demand for travel, and that might mean an expansion to the northeast near [other] NESCAC colleges.” Yanelle Cruz contributed reporting to this article.

o you need the silence of the Tisch Library reading room to get any studying done? Or do you prefer to sit at Kindlevan Café, immersed in your work with background chatter as ambient noise? Or are you a homey person who likes the comfort and convenience of your own room? Essentially, do you need a quiet environment to think and work, or is your mind already so jumbled that distractions can’t lead you astray any more than your own thoughts can? I have a problem — whenever I have to study, it can take me up to half an hour to decide where I want to study. The green sofas at the SEC are pretty comfortable, but the tables would be too low if I needed to take notes. Space and seating in Tisch are flexible, but do I really want to study in an atmosphere so thick with stress you can almost breathe in midterm panic? Studying for me is such a cluttered, complicated task that usually involves two Chrome windows, each with a dozen open tabs, and some sort of phone app that doesn’t allow me to go on social media. I procrastinate because my mind is a cluttered space. If you could envision my room with clothes strewn on a chair, dresser tops bearing everything from childhood trinkets to Tide pods — that’s basically my mind. I’ll drop a thought and pick up another one like throwing my outfit on the floor to change into pajamas. Unfortunately, a study in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin says that people who described their homes as more cluttered or unfinished than restorative usually had higher levels of cortisol — a stress hormone — and were more prone to fatigue and depressed moods. This correlation concerns me, because college is one of the most ripe times to develop high levels of stress, fatigue or emotional dysfunction, due to the intensity of pursuing a degree and the pressure of growing up. Maybe it’s finally time to, as I always say jokingly to friends, “get my life together.” It’s scary because … where do I even begin? An article from Business Insider reveals that some people are even afraid to declutter their space and their minds, because they associate that clutter with creativity and inspiration — I fall into this group. I’ve grown so dependent on my ability to finish a 2-week project in an evening and to produce a mediocre product that it overshadows the times when I have not been able to complete a task just because I procrastinated. Tufts, among many other universities, has a culture of competitive stress that can lead to students forming unhealthy habits and coping mechanisms. Some weekends when I don’t have much work to do, I’ll actually find myself worrying, because if I’m not stressed, maybe it’s because I’m not doing enough. Now, knowing how a disorganized lifestyle can lead to higher levels of stress, and knowing how stress can in turn lead to putting things off and reinforcing a cluttered mindset, I think it’s time to declutter — to allow myself that 8 p.m. nap when I’m exhausted, clean up my room, organize class notes … and stay hydrated! Quinn Pham is a sophomore studying international relations. Quinn can be reached at quinn.pham@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY | ADVERTISEMENT | Monday, October 29, 2018

PURSUE YOUR PASSIONS, SHAPE YOUR FUTURE. Want real-life experience and a graduate degree? With Fletcher’s Map Your Future program, you can have both. Secure your spot in our MALD or MIB degree programs now so you can pursue your professional goals before heading back to school.

tuftsdaily.com

Attention Class of 2019 Sign Up Now for

SENIOR PORTRAITS Round 2! Sign Up at…. www.ouryear.com (enter Tufts code, 267) Starting Monday 11/5, Campus Center 112 For information on the 2019 Senior Memory Book please go to http://ocl.tufts.edu/memorybook/

2017 Cover

Contact The Office of Admissions & Financial Aid +1 617-627-3040 fletcheradmissions@tufts.edu • fletcher.tufts.edu

Monday, October 29, 2018

ARTS&LIVING EXHIBITION REVIEW

‘Cecilia Vicuña: Disappeared Quipu’ reclaims ancient culture of the Andes by Libby Langsner Arts Editor

Over the past 50 years, Cecilia Vicuña has been fascinated by the quipu, an ancient Incan device used by the aboriginal people of the Andes to record both history and narratives, as well as the various transactions of everyday life. The centerpiece of Vicuña’s latest show, from Oct. 20 to Jan. 21, 2019 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is her work “Quipu desaparecido” (Disappeared Quipu), from which the show gets its name. Vicuña often crafts large-scale interactions of the quipu, and “Quipu desparecido” is yet another extraordinary example of Vicuña’s oeuvre. Quipus consist of one long string with multiple knotted strings attached to the initial string, and some also looped together, similar to how one might staple papers together. Quipus were a forbidden form of communication under colonization, and many were violently destroyed by Spanish colonizers. Vicuña’s artist statement says, “Quipus are a metaphor for the union of all. / They were forbidden in 1583, yet they went on / undercover, still weaving our breath. My first quipu was The quipu that remembers nothing. / I was offering my desire for memory.” Vicuña’s work is a testament to the resilience of the indigenous people of the Andes — how despite colonial rule and violence, they continued to subvert the laws of imperial rule. The poetic tone of Vicuña’s artist statement is no coincidence; she also writes poetry and creates her own films. The wall text of the exhibition states, “‘Quipu desaparecido’ is a multisensory memorial to ancient people and to their ways of life, which the Spanish attempted to eradicate during their conquest and colonization of the Americas … Their systems of weaving, combined with the knot-making language of the quipu, conveyed their understanding of the sacred threads that interconnected all beings in the cosmos.” The installation takes the viewer back into a different time, as the audio of an ancient Andean song plays while various textile patterns are projected unto the enlarged quipu. At a recent screening of Vicuña’s films at the Harvard Film Archive, Vicuña said, “A quipu is a thread that turns around and

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Artist Cecilia Vicuña poses at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Chile on Jan. 14, 2014 sees itself. If you can make a knot in a single thread, you will experience the weirdness of the thread, looking at itself. And to me that is the ancient poetry, and so I have always understood the quipu to be a poem, the knot to be a metaphor for our own awareness becoming aware of itself. If we are [taking] away all rights, the right to be people, the right to be mad, the right to be any way we are, the one right that we must never ever give up is the right to be aware of our awareness. And from that turning around, from the quipu insistence and quipu-tition I think we can turn around this world.” The artist’s powerful statement reflects how the thought processes of the ancient world can and should be rediscovered and revitalized to change our modern realities. Vicuña is no idealist — she is more than aware of our current political climate and how distorted the world has become. By reclaiming a lost language and theory of the world, she undermines histories written by imperialists, which are described in the most absolute terms as the truth. Her works are a powerful political vehicle, similarly to the illegal quipus which continued to be created under colonial rule. Vicuña also said at the screening event, “I called that installation ‘Disappeared Quipu’ not only to honor the disappeared

from Latin America, the prisoners that were kidnapped and made to disappear by the dictatorships in South America. Thousands of thousands of people were made to disappear … But, even before that … when the Europeans arrived in Latin America, they made to disappear a world that consisted in thinking of itself in a completely different way, and to me that’s the hurt that is the most powerful hurt: the hurt of not being able to think of yourself and the world in the manner that you have as your life.” Several ancient quipu and Andean textiles on loan from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University surround “Disappearing Quipu.” This familiarizes viewers with the form that Vicuña’s work enlarges and brings to light and attention. Viewers will be amazed with the detail of the works, similar to how we might view a journal in a foreign language, full of information we are unable to decipher. Vicuña’s work is so important exactly for the reason she highlights about the quipu — they exemplify a way of thinking that colonists sought to destroy. Vicuña reclaims the power of the quipu, reminds us of their existence and forces us to recognize how something so everyday would draw such violent destruction and the political implications of that destruction.

ALBUM REVIEW

John Legend offers a new holiday classic with ‘A Legendary Christmas’ by Abby Schmidt

Contributing Writer

December is over a month away, but John Legend just gave music lovers an early Christmas gift. The talented singer celebrated another religious holiday (and earned an EGOT in the process) with his leading turn in NBC’s “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert” on Easter Sunday this year. He’s kicking off the most wonderful time of the year with his much-anticipated first holiday album, appropriately titled “A Legendary Christmas.”

Legend announced the project in September on Instagram along with the accompanying “A Legendary Christmas” tour, which includes a Boston stop at the Boch Center on Nov. 25. NBC also just announced that Legend will team up with his wife Chrissy Teigen to host the telecast “A Legendary Christmas with John and Chrissy,” airing Nov. 28 at 10 p.m. The couple will be joined on the broadcast by family, friends and a soon-to-beannounced lineup of special guests to ring in the holidays in style. The album is well worth the hype. “A Legendary Christmas,” produced by

Raphael Saadiq, boasts a tracklist of eight holiday classics plus six original songs. It kicks off with a bang with “What Christmas Means to Me,” featuring soul icon Stevie Wonder, who recorded perhaps the most well-known cover of this tune in 1967. Here Wonder nails a harmonica solo at the end of a bombastic big band number. The album’s other guest is jazz artist Esperanza Spalding, whose voice blends beautifully with Legend’s on “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” see LEGEND, page 6

5 tuftsdaily.com

Evan Zigmond Out on the Town

The Gas at Great Scott

ver the past few decades, Boston has produced some stellar stand-up comics. Among others, comedians Gary Gulman, Marc Maron and Bill Burr all got their starts in the greater Boston area. There are still many opportunities to watch quality stand-up this year. Among these opportunities lies The Gas, a weekly comedy show at Great Scott in Allston. Great Scott is a pretty easy venue to get to. It is accessible by taking either the subway or a combination of the subway and the bus. The subway is cheaper, but the combination route is significantly quicker. I took the T from Davis to Harvard and transferred to the 66 bus. From there, I rode the bus 14 stops to the intersection of Harvard Street and Commonwealth Avenue. The venue is within sight of the bus stop, so it was easy to find. Great Scott’s comedy show is held every Friday night, starting at 7 p.m. There was a $5 entry fee, and audience members must be over 18 and able to present ID at the door. Once inside, you are immediately struck by the magical aura of this sticky dive bar. The lights are fairly dim, and the room was not at all crowded. There was also a fully accessible bathroom, a welcome contrast to the businesses downtown that guard their bathrooms like a dragon guards its hoard. A little after 7 p.m., the show’s host, the consistently funny Rob Crean, got onstage to warm the audience up. He has a unique take on comedic phrasing, taking long pauses before many of his punchlines. He did pretty well warming the audience up for the next comic. Over the course of the evening, at least eight comics performed around 10 minutes of material each. The show is definitely cost-effective if you want to see a lot of comedy. The comics themselves ranged in style and personality, so there was something for everyone. The seating arrangement was very intimate. I was able to sit a few feet from the stage. Hearing comedy in a setting like this is much more pleasant than going to a huge amphitheater where the comic echoes through the place. Although the size of the venue is great for comedy, it is important to bear in mind that comics might take smaller shows as an opportunity to try new material and some of the jokes may fall flat. It can be hard to feel comfortable in the deafening silence created by a failed joke. Hecklers are also an unfortunate reality of the show, and comics often have to stop what they’re doing to address the heckler. These are the universal truths of mid-level comedy, but The Gas at Great Scott is a must-see experience regardless. Its location, combined with the ambiance of the bar, makes me forget I’m a Tufts student relegated to a campus. For a couple hours on Friday evening, I’m a true Bostonian, sitting in a bar listening to jokes with everyone else. If being on campus ever feels constricting, The Gas at Great Scott is the perfect place to escape. Evan Zigmond is a sophomore studying music. Evan can be reached at Evan.Zigmond@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Living | Monday, October 29, 2018

tuftsdaily.com

‘A Legendary Christmas’ distinguishes itself with original tunes LEGEND

continued from page 5 Legend is careful not to experiment too much with the tracks we all know and love. He sticks to the nostalgic jazzy and soulful sounds that grace every cocktail party and coffee shop toward the end of the year, but he does it well. Standouts include “Silver Bells,” which draws on Motown influences for a more upbeat version of the classic track; an impassioned cover of blues standard “Please Come Home For Christmas;” and an impressive mash-up of R&B tune “Merry Christmas Baby” (1947) and The Jackson 5’s “Give Love on Christmas Day” (1970). Legend’s impeccable vocal technique migrates perfectly across genres and moods, making listeners wonder why, exactly, it took him this long to record a holiday album. Where “A Legendary Christmas” sets itself apart, however, is in the newly penned tracks. Writing new holiday songs is a tricky feat, considering how ingrained the old standards are in the cultural consciousness. But Legend’s originals are some of the best tracks on the album, blending in with the overall mood without feeling like filler tracks. Jazz number “No Place Like

Home” invokes the joy of spending a cozy December day indoors, with a playful stepwise melody in the verses and Legend slipping into falsetto in the refrain. His voice shines in the dramatic pre-chorus of “Bring Me Love,” in which Legend expresses his wish to Santa Claus: “Hope he’s bringing me love this Christmas / ‘Cause I deserve you here.” And of course Legend, who scored his first number one hit with “All of Me” in 2014, includes a couple of tender piano ballads on “A Legendary Christmas.” The best is “By Christmas Eve,” which has lyrics that feel personal. “I’m a thousand miles away / It’s not snowing in L.A.,” he sings, promising his family that he’ll do what it takes to be home for the holidays. It’s a very familiar sentiment, but you can tell it’s written for his wife Teigen by the loving compliments he slips in: “And I know it’s all on you / Keep it together like you’re glue / And everything you do / I notice.” “A Legendary Christmas” offers everything you could want from a Christmas album: killer vocals, lush instrumentation and a mix of genres wrapped up in a package of nostalgia and sentimentality. If you’re ready to get into the holiday spirit, it’s time to add this record to your yearly rotation.

SACHYN MITAL / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

John Legend performs at the ‘Citi Presents Evenings with Legends’ show in New York on Jan. 29, 2014.

TRASHING ONE EGG WASTES 55 GALLONS OF WATER

Monday, October 29, 2018 | ADVERTISEMENT | THE TUFTS DAILY

tuftsdaily.com

1/4 AD

1/8 AD 1/2 AD

Monday, October 29, 2018 | FUN & GAMES | THE TUFTS DAILY

F& G

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Alice: “Just knock me out, then wake me up when it’s Christmas.”

FUN & GAMES

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

SUDOKU

Scorpio (Oct. 23–Nov. 21)

Spread your wings. The freedom of the open road tempts you out of familiar surroundings. Get help building a dream. Study and prepare your observations.

CORRECTION A previous version of the Oct. 25 article “Q&A: Visiting Artist and director Bridget Kathleen O’Leary discusses upcoming university production, ‘Violet’” incorrectly stated that the show follows the train journey of its main character. The character travels by bus. The article also incorrectly stated that the production had an all-faculty design team. The article has been updated to reflect these changes. The Daily regrets this error. Difficulty Level: Coming in as pre-med

Friday’s Solution

CROSSWORD

Monday – Friday

Friday’s Solution

With your Tufts ID

We Accept

373 Main St, Medford

(781) 396-8337

Monday, October 29, 2018

Opinion OP-ED

Tufts’ treatment of Facilities workers by Jamie Neikrie Editor’s note: During the author’s time on Tufts’ grounds crew in summer 2018, he interviewed members of his immediate team tasked with maintaining the lower campus, as well as ground workers across the campus. This opinion piece includes quotes from sources who wished to remain anonymous for their personal safety. When prospective students arrive at Tufts, their first interactions with the university are shaped by the campus itself. Either subconsciously or consciously, we all formed our first opinions of Tufts based on the health of its grass, the exactness of its hedges, the vivacity of its flowers. Students who visit a university on cloudy days are nine percent less likely to enroll, according to a 2009 study. The people who maintain these physical elements, the workers of Tufts’ grounds maintenance crew, know how important it is for Tufts to make a good first impression and for students to be wowed by the beauty of the campus. They put care and effort into their work, reflecting on a freshly cut lawn of a blooming flower the way an artist would step back from a finished canvas. Or, at least, they used to. “We’ve watched this campus deteriorate over the last few years,” a 15-year employee said. “I used to take pride in my work. Now I’m embarrassed to call myself a grounds guy.” Or, as another employee put it, “I’ve never seen such an unhappy group of guys. Morale is through the ground.” A common theme emerged: The campus and the workers thrived under the previous administration of John Vik and Jesse Carreiro, who created a work environment of respect and mutual support. But after Vik retired in December 2015 and Carreiro passed away in early 2017, new management arrived at Tufts with a series of changes, abrupt for longtime workers accustomed to a familiar routine. Shortly after his hiring on Oct. 3, 2016, Ground Maintenance Supervisor Greg Mellett oversaw the transition of five longtime facilities workers from a MondayFriday routine to a Tuesday-Saturday schedule. This change, well documented in an Oct. 21 Daily article from that same year, upset the lives of the workers, many of whom have families. “I think overall morale is definitely down,” Jack Ng, a driver who was switched to the TuesdaySaturday schedule, was quoted as saying at the time. Because overtime shifts often fall on Saturdays, the change in schedules purposefully reduced the number of overtime shifts these workers could take, costing them valuable income. “I’m trying to buy a house, get my life started, and now I have to put everything on hold because I don’t know if that money is going to be there anymore,” a worker, who also moved on to the Tuesday-Saturday schedule, said. Further exacerbating tensions, Hill and Mellett hired two new employees, men in their mid 20s, to be in charge of colleagues with decades of experience. These designations also came with an increased salary.

Former Senior Facilities Director Stephen Nasson — who has since been moved to a position as Housing Management Director — suggested that these changes were made to save costs for Tufts. “My job is to make sure that we’re operating as efficiently as possible with the resources that I have,” Nasson was quoted as saying at the time. And yet, a number of the practices that I have observed over the summer suggest that the mandates coming from Mellett and Director of Campus Services Gary Hill are costing the school. Hill and Mellett have increased costs by creating a hostile work environment in which employees aren’t motivated to put in their best work. “One hand scratches the other, that’s how it used to be,” a 12-year veteran employee said. Or as another employee put it, “You treat people with respect, you get respect back.” Under the previous administration, this environment was maintained through communication and flexibility. “If I had an emergency at home, all I had to do was talk [to] John Vik and say ‘John I’ve got to go’ and he would understand,” a worker said. This level of compassion and flexibility would be paid back during the busiest periods of the year — shoveling snow in the winters or setting up for commencement — when workers are called upon to work long, arduous days with hours of overtime. In my time on the crew, I have witnessed dozens of overtime calls, a process where Mellett offers overtime shifts to each employee. Almost uniformly, the response is “no.” Faced with this reality, workers say that Mellett has turned to a clause in the university’s contract with Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ — the union that represents facilities workers — that allows him to force workers into overtime shifts. One employee was compelled into working 108 hours of overtime last year under Mellett. Eight of these overtime hours came during the worst possible time for the employee. When his mom was diagnosed with cancer, the employee filed for and was granted up to 480 hours of leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, a federal law that allows employees up to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave each year with no threat of job loss. Against his protests, the employee was forced to leave his mother in hospice care on Jan. 8, 2017 to work an overtime shift. “Because of the hostile environment I was in, I felt that saying no to work on the 8th was not a choice I had without [repercussions],” he said. Despite his compliance, he received a letter on Jan. 27, 2017 from Nasson which reminded him of the “severity” of missing work, which he did not do. The letter stated that “you cannot pick and choose the times of an emergency event,” and threatened future citations. His mother passed away a week later. The crew told me that they could not remember an instance of Hill or Mellett using the words “please” or “thank you,” despite placing enormous demand on their employees. My experience on the crew validated this perception. “There are what I call the three c’s of a healthy work environment,” the 12-year employee

said. “Communication, cooperation and camaraderie. Gary Hill and Greg Mellett have a different three c’s: cut benefits, cut corners and cut grass.” Or as another employee put it, “It’s simple. Treat people with respect and dignity.” Nasson, Hill and Mellett have created an environment in which workers are dehumanized, forced to work under a regime rather than working alongside a partnership. “You want to take pride in your work but you don’t want to work for a guy like that,” one of the workers said. After just two years at Tufts, that worker has since moved on to a different position. By a worker’s estimate, five grounds and labor shop employees have resigned or retired early this year because of the work environment they faced under Mellett and Hill. Unfortunately, the issues highlighted in this piece are not unique to the grounds maintenance department. Employees across the school are saying a lack of respect and an unhealthy work environment, a cultural and institutional failure that upper administrators are, at best, willfully ignorant of and, at worst, actively promoting. In an April 2018 op-ed published in the Daily, an anonymous Facilities Services employee wrote that “Tufts Management — who once embraced the community, students, and the environment — has now drastically changed and has followed suit with the rest of corporate America, only caring about the bottom line and not students, staff and its workers’ needs.” My experiences as a student, an alumnus and an employee have shown me a side of Tufts that is rarely seen. Across the university, employees face a working environment in which they are unhappy. This affects the work produced by employees and staffers. It is a reputation that reaches prospective employees and prevents Tufts from hiring the best educators and workers. During my time as the chair of the Administration and Policy Committee on the Tufts Community Union Senate, I found that this environment is filtering through to the experiences of students, who told me that they faced an unresponsive, non-transparent or uncaring administrator on the opposite ends of the concerns. If it has not already, this reputation will begin to affect the way the broader public and academic world perceives Tufts. I loved my time on the Tufts grounds crew. Though they are chronically underappreciated and overlooked, these people come to work every day, battling fatigue and brutal conditions. They do so not because of the pay, because it isn’t that great. They do it because they love Tufts, and they love the students, even the ones who never acknowledge their work. After I have moved on to what society deems “real work,” they will still be here, doing the real work. For all that they do for Tufts, they deserve better. Jamie Neikrie (LA ’18) graduated with a degree in political science. He worked for Facilities Services in the summer after graduation. Jamie can be reached at jamie.neikrie@gmail.com.

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board. EDITORIALS Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily. OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to 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. ADVERTISING All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Board and Executive Business Director.

9 tuftsdaily.com

Anita Ramaswamy Anita’s Angle

Trouble for big tech

his earnings season, investors in public technology companies had to curb their excitement for the first time in a long while. Revenue growth is cooling down at Amazon, Google and Snapchat. Twitter is losing active users. Facebook is releasing its earnings report this week, and many analysts expect the trend of decelerating revenue growth from the second quarter to continue. The tech world, marked by its idealistic culture and high-growth mentality, may be in for its first reality check. Although one quarter is far too short of a time frame to evaluate and diagnose financial troubles, the regulatory threat looms on the horizon as Silicon Valley companies face increased domestic scrutiny. While the United States has not even considered going as far as the European Union did with its General Data Protection Regulation, the world’s most stringent set of internet privacy protection laws, the state of California recently passed three bills that should set off alarm bells for the tech world’s darlings. The bills seek to resolve the issues of data privacy, net neutrality and lack of gender parity on corporate boards. California is limited in its ability to enforce these regulations due to a lack of buy-in at the federal level and the fact that many tech companies headquartered in California are legally chartered in Delaware and other states. But despite these constraints, California is setting a legal standard that reflects growing discontent from consumers and citizens. These new rules spook tech companies enough that they will seek to preempt them from taking effect by pushing for laxer regulation at the federal level. Regulation may be an uphill battle for Washington to actually pass, but public scrutiny surrounding the culture in tech companies will continue to intensify in the meantime. Netflix is just one example — this week, the Wall Street Journal published an investigative piece exposing the company for its competitive culture where “blunt firings” have become more commonplace. Google’s employees protested earlier this month upon media reports of the company secretly working on a search engine that would comply with Chinese censorship policies. And while Google pulled out of competition for the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud computing contract due to concerns about the deal not reflecting its corporate values, Microsoft and Amazon have been criticized for reaffirming their commitment to such defense contracts. Axios’s Kia Kokalitcheva explained that “these big public tech companies are being pushed to acknowledge their responsibilities in the workplace and society, and can no longer hide behind the idealism of ‘changing the world.’” The tension between technology giants and regulators is only getting started, and the public has realized that as both consumers and critics of the same platforms, it is getting caught in the crossfire. Fears of regulation posing a significant threat may seem far-fetched for now, but technology companies should be even more worried about the court of public opinion, as slowing user growth threatens the very core of their business models. Anita Ramaswamy is a senior studying political science. Anita can be reached at anita.ramaswamy@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY | Opinion | Monday, October 29, 2018

tuftsdaily.com

CARTOON

BY RUIJINGYA TANG

ION OF STA IAT TE OC

TERS RES FO

NATIONAL A SS

U N D E D 192

Sports

Monday, October 29, 2018 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

Jumbos await potential NCAA bid

WEEKEND SCORES FOOTBALL (5–2) at Amherst

13–19

VOLLEYBALL (15–9) Conn. College Wesleyan

3–0 2–3

WOMEN’S SAILING Victoria Urn Trophy at Bowdoin

9th of 16

CO-ED SAILING Nickerson Trophy at Tufts 1st, 11th of 17 Dave Perry Race at Yale 2nd, 4th of 5 78th Professor Schell 8th of 18 Trophy at Dartmouth MEN’S SOCCER (13–0–3) NESCAC Quarterfinals Colby

0–0 2OT, 2-3 on PK

WOMEN’S SOCCER (10–4–2) NESCAC Quarterfinals

SEOHYUN SHIM / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Tufts’ sophomore defender Biagio Paoletta attempts to stop a Bowdoin player in a 0–0 draw on Oct. 24, 2017.

MEN'S SOCCER

continued from page 12 best chance of the game came 28 minutes in. Tasker dribbled inside and curled a shot towards the far post, but the Mules’ senior goalkeeper Dan Carlson dived to make a save and the ball fell to junior midfielder Zach Lane, who was only yards away from the goal. Lane leaned back, and the ball sailed over the goal. In the second half, Tufts continued to pile on the pressure, forcing Carlson to make three saves to their 17 shots. The Tufts defense held even firmer, only allowing two shots on target. Braun found himself in numerous scoring opportunities, taking a whopping eight shots in the second half, but only one was on target. Braun spoke about how he felt about the opportunities he had in the game. “It was less what Colby did well and more us just not finishing our chances,” Braun said. “I kind of have a striker’s mentality in that I try not to let me missing an opportunity deter me from taking another chance later in the game. I try and have a short memory in the sense that my next shot is going to go in.” One of the Jumbos’ strongest chances of the game came at 70:57, when firstyear defender Ian Daly sent a cross to sophomore defender/midfielder Derek

Enge, who was unmarked just outside the box. Enge curled a shot with his first touch down the middle of the goal but it slammed right against the crossbar. With under 10 minutes left and still no goals to show on either side, Tufts turned on the gas, firing five shots in the last seven minutes of regulation. This included a give-and-go between Braun and Lane with three minutes to spare; Braun’s shot just skimmed the top of the bar, drawing gasps from the spectators. The physically formidable Mules defenders held against the Jumbos’ waves of attack in both periods of overtime, finally forcing the game to the dreaded penalty kicks. Last year, Tufts played in two shootouts, winning them both. Tufts was not so lucky this time. After Lane converted his penalty, junior midfielder Jack Delaney dragged his shot wide left and sophomore midfielder Travis van Brewer had his saved. First-year midfielder Zachary Seigelstein secured a lifeline by scoring, but at that point Colby had scored three penalties of their own. Compared to last year where Mieth saved three penalties, the Mules’ shots were too much for the Montclair, N.J. native. Tufts was given a second chance when Colby missed their fourth penalty, but still there was no room for error. Tasker stepped up in an attempt to prolong the shoot-out,

but Carlson made one more impressive save to end the game, delivering the Mules perhaps their biggest win in 24 years, when they reached the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference semifinals in 1994. For Tufts, losing its first match of the season in a winner-takes-all tournament game is not an easy pill to swallow, especially with the team going unbeaten in the regular season for the first time since records began in 1946. But this Tufts team does not lack confidence: Paoletta said that this is just a hiccup in an otherwise record-breaking season for one of the best teams in the country. “We think that we’re the best team out there in the 90 minutes of regular time, 20 minutes of overtime and PKs,” Paoletta said. “We have the confidence that we can beat you in all three of those. Today we got unlucky.” Tufts awaits the NCAA tournament draw on Nov. 5 to see whether they make the national tournament. With a 13–0–3 record, No. 2 national and No. 1 regional ranks, the Jumbos are likely to receive a bid. For a team that has played 16 games in fewer than eight weeks, the two-week break is a welcomed rest. Hopeful for a NCAA tournament berth, the Jumbos will take the time to gear up both mentally and physically ahead of their first national fixture.

Wesleyan

2–0

FIELD HOCKEY (15–1) NESCAC Quarterfinals Amherst

2-0

MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY NESCAC Championship

7th of 11

WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY NESCAC Championship

4th of 11

AT FIRST I WAS EMBARRASSED. ME, A CAT, LIVING WITH A SINGLE GUY. BUT WHEN I WATCH HIM PICK SOMETHING UP WITH HIS HANDS AND EAT IT, I CAN’T HELP BUT LOVE HIM. — MARU adopted 01-10-10

Tufts fails to take down undefeated Amherst FOOTBALL

continued from page 12 on that drive, they would soon get on the board. After an Amherst punt forced by a key sack from junior defensive lineman Kevin Quisumbing, McDonald scored on the following possession with a 25-yard run. The Jumbos failed to convert their two-point attempt and went into halftime trailing 10–6. Just as in the first half, the Mammoths came out the stronger of the two teams again. Midway through the third quarter, Callahan caused another Jumbo turnover, forcing and recovering a fumble and then returning it all the way to the Tufts 2-yard line. From there, Amherst easily scored a touchdown through senior tailback Jack Hickey but could not complete the extra point to lead by 10. While the Tufts offense struggled, Amherst built on its lead early in the

fourth quarter. Despite big tackles from three Jumbos — senior defensive lineman Nmesoma Nwafor, junior linebacker and co-captain Greg Holt and junior defensive lineman Conor Chepenik — the Mammoths were able to get into field goal range and nail one from 13 yards out. Tufts finally put together a sustained drive with 13 minutes remaining. The drive went 75 yards, and was punctuated by a 22-yard pass from McDonald to sophomore wide receiver OJ Armstrong that brought them all the way to the 2-yard line. From there, senior running back Dom Borelli punched the ball in to cut Amherst’s lead to only six points. Despite some incredibly strong play from the defense, the Jumbos failed to capitalize on their opportunities to take the lead or even tie for the remainder of the game. They punted on their next possession, and then, on what would be their final drive of the game, McDonald tossed

an interception, ending any hopes of a Jumbos comeback. Coach Jay Civetti saw no magic solution to the team’s offensive woes, but rather a simple need to perform with greater poise. “We’ve got to execute better,” he said. “Amherst has a really strong defense, and we just had to play better than we did. We got the ball with three minutes left in the game and we needed to put something together. We’ve got to be able to score.” Overall, the Jumbos turned the ball over three times in the course of the game, while the Mammoths remained turnover-free. Despite a valiant effort from the defense, the Jumbos could not overcome their strong opponent. However, they will likely be keeping their heads up even after this defeat. Civetti said he is confident about his squad’s ability to close the season on a high note. “Everybody’s fully committed to making sure we focus on each other and do

better at what we’ve got to get better at,” he said. “It’s the last home game with this senior crew, and we need to really focus on finishing the season the right way. We’ll control what we can control, stay invested in one another and take pride in our season.” Walton said that should the team win its next two games, the current senior class will be tying the record for most wins by a class year in program history. “We’re just playing for our seniors now,” he said. “I know that if we get these next two wins, the seniors will have tied the record for most wins by a class in Tufts football history. So we’re trying to get these two wins for those guys, so that they can leave on a high note.” Tufts will look to get back to its winning ways this Saturday at Ellis Oval. The Jumbos will be playing their final home game of the season against the Colby Mules, which will kick off at 1 p.m.

12 tuftsdaily.com

Sports

Football drops defensive battle at Amherst

Monday, October 29, 2018

Sam Weidner Weidner's Words

Rule changes won’t solve the NFL’s problems

RACHEL HARTMAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior quarterback and co-captain Ryan McDonald is tackled while rushing with the football during Tufts’ 47–14 Homecoming victory over Bates at Bello Field on Sept. 29. by Nate Hartnick

Contributing Writer

The Jumbos traveled to Pratt Field in Amherst, Mass. on Saturday, with hopes of spoiling the Mammoths’ undefeated record. They came out on the losing end in a hard fought defensive battle, falling 19–13, as their opponent remained undefeated. This loss dropped Tufts’ overall record to a still-stellar 5–2 mark. Tufts is now tied with Williams for third place in the NESCAC standings, behind Amherst and Trinity. The game was played under harsh conditions, as wind and rain took its toll on both teams with both offenses struggling to move the ball through the air. Senior co-captain quarterback Ryan McDonald led the Jumbos’ air attack with 137 yards passing, and also scored a rushing touchdown, while Amherst’s junior quarterback Ollie Eberth chalked up 150 yards passing. The Jumbos’ running game was spear-

headed by sophomore running back Mike Pedrini, who racked up 65 yards rushing. The Jumbos held strong on the defensive side for most of the game. Despite Amherst keeping possession of the ball for nearly two thirds of the match, Tufts was able to limit them to only 281 total yards. Sophomore linebacker Jack Walton led the charge, coming in first on the team with a game-high 12 tackles. He credited his defensive performance to the work of his teammates. “Honestly, it was just the guys around me,” Walton said. “The defense as a whole played very well. I thought for the front seven, it was the best we’ve played all year. Our [defensive] line did a great job filling gaps and that allowed me to make plays.” The Mammoths started the game strong, scoring on their first drive. After Amherst marched down the field and advanced the ball to the red zone, Tufts’ defense pulled together to force fourth down at the five-yard line. The Mammoths

then cunningly faked a field goal and scored a rushing touchdown. The Jumbos failed to secure a first down on either of their first two possessions, allowing their hosts to get comfortable. The Mammoths again drove the ball down the field into Tufts territory on the next drive, but the Jumbos’ defense came through this time by preventing another fourth-down conversion. However, the Jumbos’ offensive struggles continued, as Mammoth senior linebacker John Callahan intercepted McDonald on the ensuing drive. The Mammoths were able to convert their excellent field position into a 39-yard field goal and a 10–0 lead. Tufts finally started to heat up on offense in the second quarter, when McDonald completed a 27-yard pass to senior wide receiver Dan de Leon. While they were unable to generate any points see FOOTBALL, page 11

Men’s soccer suffers shock defeat to Colby, bows out of NESCACs by Maddie Payne and Arlo Moore-Bloom Sports Editors

Tufts suffered its first loss of the season on Sunday against Colby, 3–1 on penalties after a goalless 110 minutes in the NESCAC Championship quarterfinal. The No. 1 Jumbos failed to convert three of their five penalties in the shoot-out, crashing out to the No. 8 bottom-seeded Mules. Failing to convert was a repetitive theme throughout the match as the Jumbos notched 39 total shots compared to the Mules’ 11, yet with nary a goal to show for it. This year marked the fifth year since 2012 that the Jumbos have lost in the first round of the conference tournament, though in two of those years — 2014 and 2016 — the team went on to claim the national championship. A Tufts goal felt inevitable throughout the entirety of the match, but the players spurned almost a dozen gilt-edged chances. Tufts took command of the match from the start, pinning Colby into their own half

for minutes at a time. Sophomore defender Biagio Paoletta was especially effective, winning aerial duels and pegging the opposition back. The Mules’ offense didn’t force a save out of senior goalkeeper and co-captain Connor Mieth in the entire first half, eliciting only two total in the match. “It starts from our defensive mindset, and that starts from [junior forward] Joe Braun,” Paoletta said. “He’s always pressuring their defense into playing long balls and weak passes that we can easily intercept. Once we get the ball, we don’t do anything too crazy with it, give it to our midfield and let them do the rest. By out-possessing them we can limit their shots and make them tired — when they did get the ball, they didn’t have the energy that we did and we won it back quickly.” Sophomore defender/midfielder Calvin Aroh played in front of the Jumbos’ back four, shielding them from pressure and playing the ball with composure out of the back and into the midfield. Tufts dominated possession and played out of the back

with ease, but could never quite reach Colby’s 18-yard box. Coach Josh Shapiro’s decision to replace Braun with sophomore forward Max Jacobs near the half-hour mark did not fix the lack of penetration. Braun spoke to the difficulty of playing against Colby senior defender Garrett Dickey, who is 6′ 8″. “A lot of the time when we would cross balls in, Dickey was just eating everything up,” Braun said. “They did a good job clearing a lot of our crosses, and so we needed to be smarter about avoiding him and picking out one of our runners going into the box. Our crosses could have been designed better to avoid Dickey and the front post to look to get the ball in to the back post.” The brightest spot for the Tufts offense was junior midfielder/forward Gavin Tasker. A speedster with a superb first touch, Tasker penetrated the Mules’ defensive third consistently. The Jumbos’ see MEN'S SOCCER, page 11

he NFL has reviewed and revised a multitude of rules over the past few years as they have attempted to pin down what exactly a catch is, and recently, what exactly an acceptable tackle is. The changes are driven by good intentions, as the NFL has expressed a desire to bring down or stop the amount of helmet-to-helmet contact that occurs between players. When cornerbacks and safeties are running at full speed in the open field to tackle a receiver, or running backs are pounding the ball upfield straight at a wall of defensive ends, helmet-to-helmet tackles can lead to devastating brain damage and a significantly increased likelihood of concussions. You would think that any attempts by the NFL to cut down on these instances would be embraced readily, but this season players, fans and the NFL have found that cutting down on this contact is a much harder task then it would seem, with unforeseen consequences. While the NFL has outlawed these helmet-to-helmet hits, they have made players more likely to aim low when tackling, which comes with its own set of dangers, such as a higher likelihood of leg and knee ligament injuries. Additionally, the new rules regarding quarterback tackling, where a defensive player is prohibited from landing on top of a quarterback with all or most of their weight, may have already led to some new injuries. The Miami Dolphins believe that the ACL tear suffered by their defensive end William Hayes earlier this season was due to him attempting to not land fully on Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr. Players such as J. J. Watt, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers and Deshaun Watson, among others, have all come out to criticize the new tackling rules and express their belief that the rules are too excessive or headed in the wrong direction. The NFL now faces a tough decision as it is caught between fans and players who want the officiating fiascos to end, their present responsibility to protect the health of players and the risk it faces to the future of the entire league if nothing changes. The league is at a point where it seems like no matter the changes they make or new technology they introduce, they can’t change the fact that football is a brutally violent game and both short-term and long-term injuries seem inevitable for the athletes. If the NFL wants football to exist in the way it does now for any kind of long term, it needs to embrace its flaws and stop trying to deflect them. Yes, the NFL should continue to adjust their rules and implement new technology to protect players, but that shouldn’t be used as a mechanism to shroud the dangers players face. The most important thing the NFL, players and fans can do is educate themselves and others on the health risks inherently present in football. It is up to players to make the choice to play, but that choice should be informed by knowledge of all the relevant risks, and it is the NFL’s responsibility to make sure that information is available. Sam Weidner is a junior studying mathematics. Sam can be reached at samuel. weidner@tufts.edu.