The Tufts Daily - Wednesday, February 12, 2020 by The Tufts Daily

As TikTok continues to grow worldwide, questions arise about future of app see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 4

WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD

Jumbos find success, score several top-5 finishes at home meet

Men’s track and field impress at Cupid Challenge with multiple season-high performances see SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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VOLUME LXXIX, ISSUE 13

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Tufts reassures students following expansion of Trump administration’s travel ban by Caleb Symons Staff Writer

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The outside of international center on March 4, 2019.

Last week, The Tufts International Center contacted students from three of the countries recently added to the Trump administration’s travel ban to clarify the updated ban’s provisions and to offer a number of travel and counseling resources. The expansion of Presidential Proclamation 9645 to bar residents of Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania from permanently immigrating to the United States was announced on Jan. 31. It will go into effect on Feb. 21. In response to the updated ban, International Center Director Andrew Shiotani sent an email on Feb. 3 to students from the affected countries who are also non-permanent residents of the United States. see TRAVEL BAN, page 2

Part of ceiling collapses in Eaton Hall classroom by Natasha Mayor News Editor

A portion of plaster in room 202 of Eaton Hall came loose and fell through the ceiling over the weekend of Jan. 25 to 26, according to Director of Building Operations in Medford Jeff McKay. There were no injuries as a result of the plaster falling, as there was nobody in the room at the time, according to McKay. He added that this incident does not indicate a lack of structural integrity in the building. “The plaster ceiling in this room and many other areas of the building is original to the building construction dating back to 1908,” McKay wrote in an email to the Daily. “This type of failure is common in buildings with this type of construction and the approach that Tufts has taken to remediate the issue is typical in the industry.” Once the Facilities Services Department was informed of the damage, McKay said they assessed the ceiling in its entirety and decided the best course of action was to remove all the existing plaster as an extra precaution. “New sheetrock and new acoustical drop ceilings have been installed and the room is back in service,” McKay said. “In addition to this work, facilities crews are in the process of surveying the ceilings in the rest of the building.” McKay explained that the damage was in the ceiling itself, unlike the decorative plaster damage that caused tem-

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porary closures in four rooms in Eaton in 2017. John LiBassi, an administrator in the sociology department, said that he noticed the damage on the Monday morning after it occurred and immediately notified Associate Registrar Sarah Harvey. “She had already received the information and was working to reschedule all the classes,” LiBassi said. “She was able to reassign the classrooms, and actually the room was ready to be opened up again the following Monday.”

LiBassi added that the Department of Sociology, which is housed in Eaton, has been consistently supported during issues like this. “We’ve had some issues with the building, but I have to say that Facilities and actually the administration has been very responsive, particularly with this last incident,” LiBassi said. Chair of the Department of Classical Studies Bruce Hitchner, whose department is also housed in Eaton Hall, explained that difficult but important decisions are see EATON, page 2

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Eaton Hall is pictured on April 20, 2018. For breaking news, our content archive and exclusive content, visit tuftsdaily.com @tuftsdaily

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ORLL to eliminate lead resident assistant role for next year by Alejandra Carrillo News Editor

The Office of Residential Life and Learning (ORLL) told lead resident assistant (RA) applicants by email on Jan. 31 that they would be eliminating the lead RA role entirely, and therefore would not be interviewing any candidates to fill the position next year. This announcement came at the end of the week during which interviews would have taken place, but the ORLL did not notify the applicants that they were considering eliminating the role. Lead RAs, a position that is still operational this semester, are similar to RAs but work more closely in assisting the resident directors and mentor other RAs. Associate Director for Residential Education Nadia Vargas indicated that the ORLL did not make this change due to the pool of candidates and that the decision had instead been in the making for some time. “It was not a reflection of the quality of candidates … I think this past year, we’ve had several conversations regarding just leadership development in general,” Vargas said. Vargas explained the implications of the lead RA title and the misconception that this is the only role that carries leadership qualities. “One of the things that we’re noticing … is that there is a lack of agency if you don’t have the title of lead, and I want folks to have ownership over the fact that they are leaders regardless of whether or not they are in the lead role,” Vargas said. Vargas underlined that there is a possibility the lead RA position will be reinstated in the future, depending on the ORLL’s need for support, adding that first-year Residence Hall Councils might create a need for additional support from ORLL student staff. According to the ORLL website, Hall Councils allow first-year students to take on leadership positions within their residence halls and work on strengthening relationships with key members of the Tufts community. Vargas indicated that she would like to create a common identity among RAs first before considering the reestablishment of the lead RA role. “I want to foster a cohesive team identity of what it means to be a leader outside of your title see RESIDENT ASSISTANT, page 2

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, February 12, 2020

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Hartman, Vargas of ORLL discuss restructuring office

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continued from page 1 The recipients comprised of 40 students across Tufts’ undergraduate and graduate schools — 29 from Nigeria, nine from Tanzania and two from Myanmar, according to Shiotani. This includes 10 students who have already completed their studies at Tufts but are still sponsored by the university to work in the United States for a brief period. Shiotani confirmed that there are currently no students enrolled at Tufts from the other three countries added to the travel ban. Shiotani explained in his email that the ban only applies to residents of the six countries who seek to become permanent residents of the United States and does not restrict entry for those with non-immigrant visas. The latter group includes foreigners with F-1 student visas and J-1 exchange visitor visas, the two main types of documentation for international students. The updated ban also does not apply to people with H-1B temporary worker visas. “This latest travel ban … has a limited impact on our student population, at least insofar as they’re concerned about their ability to go home and come back as students,” Shiotani said. “We thought it was important to send that message to this group of students, making clear it doesn’t apply to international students on temporary student visas to prevent any anxiety or concern that it’s going to directly impact them.” Amir Rwegarulira, a senior from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, heard about the ban in the news and through his friends and family. “I didn’t know the details of the ban at first,” Rwegarulira said. “I was very concerned because my parents are probably going to be here for graduation in May and somehow that might have affected their travel plans.”

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apply are very, very strong student staff members,” Hartman said. This was a programmatic decision that was designed with the goal of enhancing the ORLL’s leadership development, according to Hartman. Katherine Powers applied to be a lead RA and expressed her disappointment at the ORLL’s abrupt decision to eliminate the role. “It’s certainly disappointing, but more than that I’m really frustrated by how it happened,” Powers, a sophomore, told the Daily in an email. “We were all left in the dark for a week, preparing for interviews that were supposed to happen in the week after we applied.” However, Powers added that she will apply again next year and will reuse her application. “The same application I submitted will be used as an application to be an RA next year … I still love the job and am excited to continue next year,” she said.

Tufts reiterates opposition to travel ban, considers joining legal challenge

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ORLL can depend on the whole team to be leaders, not just those who hold the leadership title. Josh Hartman, the director of residential life and learning, said that such restructuring is not unique in his department. He acknowledged that within the ORLL there have been several similar changes throughout the years, emphasizing that for the ORLL to continue to adapt to the needs of students, current structures must be reevaluated. “I think that in order for us to be evolving to the changing needs of our student population we need to look at the structures we have,” Hartman said. By assessing the various roles and structures, the ORLL may reallocate resources in a different way, according to Hartman. He echoed Vargas’ statement that the decision to eliminate the lead RA position was not due to the quality of applicants. “[The decision] was not a reflection of the pool of applicants that we had … the folks who

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continued from page 1 … and then we can revisit what it looks like to have a lead,” Vargas said. She explained that the reason for having announced the elimination of the RA position after students had already applied was because the ORLL was unsure about making this change. “There were ongoing conversations and … I didn’t want to make that call prematurely,” Vargas said. “I wanted to see what a full semester looked like, and I wanted to come back and make that decision more informed after training.” She underscored that all applicants had to indicate if they were interested in being a lead and then the ORLL would proceed with lead interviews. “I felt like it was better to ask people if they were interested and gauge interest, and then from there make a decision,” Vargas said. She added that her goal is to ensure that the

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Shiotani acknowledged in his email that students from the affected countries may face increased screening at U.S. consulates or upon arrival in the United States. He recommended several precautionary measures to mitigate these situations, including registering travel plans in the Tufts Travel Registry, a confidential database that allows the university to assist community members with any travel problems. “I would say there’s a general tendency at U.S. Customs and Border checkpoints to be a little bit more stringent [with residents of countries included in the travel ban],” Shiotani said. “It’s just a turbulent time as far as arrivals at airports are concerned [and] ports of entry are concerned because there’s a lot of anxiety.” Those concerns stem, in part, from high-profile cases in which students at Harvard University and Northeastern University were detained and deported after arriving at Boston Logan International Airport. No Tufts student has been detained yet by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in recent years, according to Shiotani. He explained that the Tufts International Center would work with the Tufts University Police Department, the Office of the University Counsel and potentially outside immigration attorneys in such a situation. “It’s always within the realm of possibility that any given person [on] any given day could be either temporarily detained or refused entry, so we want to make sure to minimize the chances of that happening,” Shiotani said. Patrick Collins, Tufts’ executive director of media relations, reiterated the university’s opposition to the Trump administration’s travel ban. “We continue to believe that bans such as these have a detrimental impact on higher education in the United States and impede the free exchange of ideas across countries and cul-

tures,” Collins wrote in an email. “We remain committed to protecting and supporting our students and faculty no matter their national origin or citizenship status.” Collins added that Tufts would consider joining amicus briefs to support legal challenges against the travel ban, as it has done in the past. The university filed joint amicus briefs with many local and national colleges against all three versions of the ban in 2017. Rwegarulira praised Tufts’ support for its international student community and identified weekly meetings hosted by the International Center, during which students can share ideas and concerns with their peers, as particularly effective. The university’s advocacy also reassures potential international applicants that they will be supported at Tufts, according to Rwegarulira. “We have people [in Tanzania] who are going through the process of applying to colleges right now, and one of their biggest concerns is [whether] it is okay to spend this amount of time applying to colleges when [they] might not even be able to get into the country after getting admitted,” he said. “I think by speaking out, [Tufts] will provide support and clarification towards current students who are here and also students who are trying to come in.” Despite Tufts’ support, the travel ban expansion has changed Rwegarulira’s outlook on U.S.Tanzania relations, as well as his own future in the United States. “I think this is a sign that ties between Tanzania and the U.S. are not in a good place, and in the future, something even more dangerous could happen,” he said. “If I want to settle down in the U.S., I think I’d have to go through more hurdles than before, and … it might impact my decisions, whether it’s regarding being here or looking for opportunities elsewhere.”

discussion about the future of Eaton Hall particularly in view of the completion of the new [Joyce Cummings Center] in the near future.” McKay added that Tufts actively works to maintain its historic buildings and structures. “The safety and wellness of our students, faculty and staff are our top priorities, which is why proactive preventative maintenance is a chief concern for us. Every effort is made to identify and correct these types of failures before an event takes place,” McKay said. Eaton Hall, formerly known as Eaton Memorial Library, used to be the primary library for the university. Its construction was funded by a $100,000 donation from Andrew Carnegie in 1904, according to a 2013 Daily

article. His wife, Louise Whitfield Carnegie, decided that the building should be named after Revered Charles Henry Eaton, who had married them. Over the years, the university’s collection grew, and by 1965, Eaton could no longer adequately serve as the only library on campus. Accordingly, construction started on a new library which opened in 1965 as Wessell Library, named after the University’s eighth president. It was later renamed Tisch Library. Eaton now houses the Eaton Computer Lab, several classrooms and departmental offices for the Departments of Anthropology, Classical Studies, Religion, Sociology and Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora.

Facilities, administration respond quickly to ceiling damage

EATON

continued from page 1 constantly being made about which maintenance projects to prioritize over others. “Deferred Maintenance at Tufts and other universities is an important priority; it is one of the crucial components of the accreditation process which each university goes through every ten years,” Hitchner wrote in an email to the Daily. Referencing his own background in archaeology, Hitchner considered how Eaton could best restored, rather than repaired or reconstructed. “Prior to the additions that were made to it years ago, it was a more attractive building architecturally than it is today,” Hitchner said. “It would be useful to have some further

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3 Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Lexi Serino Medford Mom

John Green was wrong

’m never, ever, ever, going to Tufts, mom.” I uttered these words one weekday afternoon in my family’s kitchen during my senior year of high school. It was late March, and I was sitting at our breakfast nook, anxiously awaiting the moment when my email inbox would light up with a notification that would change the course of my life. I had applied to seven colleges: two Ivy Leagues, plus a handful of those classic New England liberal arts colleges. One of those was Tufts, which just happened to be in the same zip code in which I had spent my entire life. I didn’t want to go to college in my hometown. I thought it went against the “I’m not like other girls” image I tried to maintain in high school. I wanted desperately to be like those manic pixie dream girls I read about in John Green novels, who were too cool and too smart and too destined for something bigger to stay in the town they were raised in — those girls who were able to run away from it all and start a new life in a new city and have it all figured out by the age of 18. I’m not that girl. I never will be. I am very much like other girls (and am proud to be). I definitely don’t have it all figured out, but I am still cool and smart and destined for big things. I don’t know why I thought it was so uncool to love the place where I grew up, but I do. I love Medford, and I’m proud to be from here. This is where my roots are, and as someone who has her head in the clouds more often than she should, those roots ground me in important ways. For a combination of reasons, I ultimately chose to go to Tufts. It was the right choice and a privileged one at that. I’m so grateful for the four years I’ve had here, growing and learning and getting to know and love the woman I’m becoming. I’m also grateful that my mom made me apply here four years ago: It was a stroke of maternal wisdom for which I haven’t thanked her enough. What I’m most grateful for is the fact that my time at Tufts has only made me love my hometown more. That’s what this column will be about: An expression of gratitude for the place I call home and a recounting of some of the stories and experiences I’ve had during my time at Tufts that make this place feel even more like home. Such deep reflection will require a level of vulnerability and honesty that unnerves me, but as a college senior on the verge of an uncertain future, I’m ready to be brave in the only way I know how: by sharing my truth. Ultimately, this column will, in some way, be love letters to that 17-year-old girl who committed to Tufts almost four years ago. I want her to know she made the right choice and that everything she was looking for — despite what John Green told her — was only ever 2.7 miles away from that breakfast nook. I’m hoping I can make her proud. Lexi Serino is a senior studying political science and Spanish. Lexi can be reached at alexis.serino@tufts.edu.

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Wednesday, February 12, 2020

The State of TikTok, Volume I

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The TikTok Logo is pictured. by Tuna Margalit

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TikTok is earning the right to call itself a global pandemic. The burgeoning app is a reincarnation of the massively-yet-fleetingly popular Vine that succumbed to competition from social media titans Instagram and Snapchat as well as its inability to turn a significant profit. Though it remains to be seen if Instagram and Snapchat can outdo the creative facilities that TikTok has to offer, the abundance of high-profile companies for which TikTok has been an advertising platform points to TikTok’s relative longevity in success and existence. Albeit this significant difference between TikTok and Vine, the former truly is the latter’s upgraded successor, practically and symbolically. Advocates of uber-simplicity and six-second content aside, no one will deny the benefits that a tenfold increase of usable time and an expansion of effects has on the breadth of creative capacity. There is, however, something to be said about the extensive list of instantly recognizable and endlessly quotable vines. This “list” is explained by a vine’s brevity. The short length makes each one essentially a soundbite, and soundbites are much easier to memorize and memorialize than15-to-60-second-long bits. Also, much of Vine’s humor consisted of users creating fictional characters and fictional situations — like Rudy Mancuso’s “Mexican Superman” and Jordan Burt’s “Don, Blind Driver” — whereas TikTok has a noticeable lack of such humor. This difference is likely due, in part, to the contemporary shift towards reaction memes and social commentary that are ubiquitous on TikTok (as well as every other young adult’s current meme stronghold) but were not as popular during Vine’s tenure. Whatever the structural and cultural divide is, the spirit and the encompassing idea have held constant: young generations are creating impactful media for their own enjoyment. Like most major social-networking services, TikTok is mired in controversy, though not enough to impede its ascent towards global popularity. This controversy is situated in an area that evades the consciousness of the vast majority of (non-Chinese) TikTok users, fall-

ing somewhere between contemporary United States foreign policy, universal human rights and data security. There have been worries about the Chinese Communist Party accessing users’ data, potential censorship of videos pertaining to the various human rights abuses occurring in China and the US’ national security at large being compromised. This is not to say that TikTok’s community would dissipate upon a hypothetical mass realization of all these potential abuses. However, it does show that there are larger forces at work here and that the controversy is not one that will be completely washed away with the rapidly growing TikTok tide. With controversy addressed, it is time to delve into the current state of TikTok. Of the popular trends on TikTok, most can be grouped into music and dance, memes and duets. Let’s start with the currently trending music and dance TikToks. At the moment, the heavily circulating songs with corresponding dances are “Lottery (Renegade)” (2019) by K CAMP, “Say So” (2019) by Doja Cat and “TOES” (2019) by DaBaby. The first, known simply as “Renegade,” originated on Instagram but was popularized by TikTok juggernaut Charli D’Amelio (@charlidamelio). It incorporates a variety of unique dance moves — mostly hip-hop-esque ones, with a heavy focus on the arms and hands and overall speediness. The second, quickly becoming Doja Cat’s biggest song, has an extremely boppy beat and lyrics that imply very specific dance moves, such as a slow motion arm roll during the lines, “Didn’t even notice / No punches left to roll with.” This dance was actually created by popular TikToker Haley Sharpe (@yodelinghaley). The third, created by TikTok’s current favorite rapper, DaBaby, has a much less strict choreography than the others but is just as fun (though it is a bit bizarre to see teenagers mouth the words, “Better not pull up with no knife/ ‘Cause I bring guns to fights”). Though these songs currently feature on many TikTok uploads, new ones seem to pop up every day. Memes are likely the most common type of TikTok video. A common theme right now follows a basic outline of text on the screen describing a random, unidentified person (often a teacher or really just any person with relative authority

over a teenager, though not always) saying something seemingly innocent. The next chunk of text is usually just “boys/ girls/people/kid named _____” with the blank space being filled in with a word or consecutive parts of multiple words said by the first person that completely changes the meaning of their sentence and, often, entirely erases the innocence of it. Usually, the meme is accompanied by an overweight rat dancing to 6ix9ine’s “Gummo” (2017). There is also an abundance of one-off memes — concocted by TikTokers with an ounce of originality — that go viral. Many of these memes are enshrouded in immature, edgy or offensive humor. It is quite rare to find a string of TikTok memes that aren’t at least somewhat “edgy” — a fact that highlights an unexpected aspect of TikTok. Even though TikTok is dominated by the youth — the generation usually known to be the most accepting and politically correct — the app is littered with material that is racist, homophobic, transphobic and containing many other vile forms of intolerance and bigotry. The possible reasons that this type of humor is common on TikTok is up for interpretation, but it is interesting to note, especially considering that the vines that went viral may have appeared less offensive than many of the popular tiktoks. “Duets” are a TikTok-specific creation where a content creator can play another creator’s video within their own video and, thereby, seem to interact with said video. The interactions range from a back-and-forth conversation to a physical action that makes sense in conjunction with the original video, to merely a reaction of the content of the original video, i.e. approval or disapproval. There’s no one specific trend in these duets, but there are certain TikTokers who often feature as the content for duets. Take Tyler Brash (@tyler.brash). Quite possibly the cringiest TikToker, Brash’s videos are usually him acting out scenarios where a guy is talking to a girl he likes. These videos are absolutely ripe for other TikTokers — Max Dressler (_maxdressler) being the most famous of them — to react to. Duets often display the more creative humor of TikTok. With the state of TikTok covered, it is important to discuss two more questions: Why is TikTok so successful, and how successful can it get? The answer

lies not in the app itself but more in that the older portion of Gen Z — currently around college-age — was the first age subgroup to really experience something like this (with Vine) and so they have that nostalgia embedded within them. Conversely, the people who were in their early 20s when Vine was popular didn’t have a nostalgic reference point and therefore were not as drawn to Vine as older Gen Z’ers are to TikTok. That being said, many Gen Z people are hesitant about TikTok due to stigma surrounding the app and its cringe factor, but this apprehension is merely the inevitable appearance of the generational gap that causes each aging generation to find the next one crass and alien. Technology and, more specifically, social media, create a distinction between past youth and young adult generational gaps, such as that of Baby Boomers and Gen X, and the more current, analogous generational gap between Millennials and Gen Z (though it could be argued that there is an intra-generational wedge between the two halves of Gen Z driven by the exponential advancement of technology). The difference is that social media is a means of connecting people, ideas, culture, memes, stories, photos, videos and GIFs from all around the world in an astoundingly instantaneous fashion, the speed of which has never beent remotely matched in past time periods.w Because social media arrived on the( scene during the teenage years of theg youngest Millennials and the oldest GenA Z’ers, these now-older people can morem readily process and adapt to an appT overrun by teenagers and their specificf sense of humor. These younger peo-j ple can infuse their own culture, ideas,c memes, stories, etc. because they haveH the technological capabilities that priorw generations in their current position didt not possess. In this way, TikTok is a suc-s cess due to the timing of its existence. Though TikTok already has above 6808 million monthly active users, that num-e ber will likely grow significantly. No ones can exactly predict quite how big it willm get, but seeing as it has broad interna-e tional appeal, advertising opportunitiest to give it profit and a perfectly-timed“ period of existence, nothing — not evenf global politics — seems able to stopg TikTok from cementing itself as a globalE pandemic. r

Wednesday, February 12, 2020 | Arts & Living | THE TUFTS DAILY

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‘The Assistant’ paints visceral picture of pre#MeToo film industry

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A promotional poster for “The Assistant” (2019) is pictured. by Tommy Gillespie Arts Editor

There are “Dirty Jobs” (2003–12), and then there are jobs that would make even Mike Rowe wince and gulp. Aspiring film producer Jane (Julia Garner), the protagonist, audience surrogate and essentially the sole character of “The Assistant” (2019), has one such job. In the early morning darkness, Jane slogs from Astoria to TriBeCa, bringing to life her office’s strident fluorescents and uncooperative printers. Her juvenile bro-workers communicate with her via crumpled-up papers thrown in her direction. Her meals, habitually interrupted by colleagues wordlessly handing her papers to copy or dishes to wash, are Froot Loops or TV dinners eaten standing up in the break room. On the surface, writer-director Kitty Green’s 87-minute movie reads almost like a hostile work environment training video. Following Jane’s soul-crushing daily routine and studying her methodically downturned lips and glazed-over eyes, however, is something far more insidious than a woman-led “Office Space” (1999) rehash. “The Assistant” was not marketed as a horror film; its cinematic strategy eschews jump scares, gore and for most of the film, a soundtrack. But Eli Roth and Ari Aster would be hard-pressed to rattle an audience’s bones the way Green shakes

ours when Jane ferries a wide-eyed aspiring filmmaker from Idaho to a hotel-room meeting with her unseen movie mogul boss. That detail, the invisibility of Jane’s Harvey Weinstein stand-in boss, makes “The Assistant” one of the #MeToo era’s most provocative and disturbing films. By shifting the focus away from the monstrous personality and onto those who spray 409 on his office couch and ensure he’s driven to his private jet on time, Green accomplishes a fascinating study of how evil infects those around it: not violently or dramatically, but gradually, monotonously and unstoppably. “The Assistant,” as mentioned, dramatizes just one of Jane’s nightmarish days working under this looming figure. The nature of his crimes simmers just beneath the office’s surface conversations. As she types an ongoing email apologizing to him for an undisclosed past breach of protocol, her office-mates suggest phrasing tips. Jane takes the elevator down to return an earring to a woman he’s previously met, who casts her eyes down and shuffles swiftly out. The aforementioned, unsuspecting Idahoan asks Jane in the car if she was put up in a fancy hotel in her first days on the job, and Jane can only shake her head. Green, who most recently directed the Netflix documentary “Casting JonBenet” in 2017, is no stranger to the magnetic, lurid power of these horrorscapes. “The Assistant” is a masterclass in

atmospheric filmmaking; she and cinematographer Michael Latham lure us up the elevator into Jane’s hellish world and box us into the four walls as compactly as Jane’s winter coat, folded up and shoved into a desk drawer. Without a standout performance from Julia Garner, though, “The Assistant” would not work nearly as well as it does. The film relies entirely on her to guide it through subtle shifts in tone and keep its insinuations just at arm’s length. And Garner, fresh off an Emmy win for “Ozark” (2017–), shepherds it along perfectly. Each defeated sigh and each blink held just a split second longer than necessary gives us the vital time we need to compose ourselves and drag ourselves methodically along with her for just one more task, one more phone call, one more day. With Garner at the helm, “The Assistant” feels interminable, humiliating and hopeless. Such adjectives are not usually reasons to laud a film, but “The Assistant” makes them its greatest assets. Green and Garner work in consummate partnership in this film, laying each tiny moment of hope sparingly at our feet but never minimizing the titanic monstrosity lurking just behind the camera. By the time the credits roll, “The Assistant” has achieved a truly remarkable feat: its unseen antagonist’s comeuppance feels desperately, sickeningly far away.

s the media continues to praise Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscarwinning performance in “Joker” (2019), I could not help but think back to Mary Harron’s “American Psycho” (2000). The film is an intentionally uncomfortable viewing experience and, as a result, many people remember it for its excessive goriness and ambiguous resolution. Quite honestly, I do not love the film for those reasons. That said, we cannot overlook Christian Bale’s outstanding performance and the film’s satirical commentary about the extravagance and absurdity of Wall Street culture in the 1980s. “American Psycho” centers around Patrick Bateman, a 27-year-old investment banker obsessed with his self-image. Every morning, he follows a borderline-maniacal routine of exercising and applying several moisturizing lotions to maintain a near-perfect physique. On the surface, he may seem like your average Wall Street executive, but the film quickly puts that idea to rest. He is seen with what looks like bloody sheets at a dry cleaner, he frequently makes aggressive, misogynistic comments toward his secretary and other women and he even mentions to the audience that he feels as if his “mask of sanity is about to slip.” From there, it almost goes without saying that his mask does slip, as he transforms into a serial killer before our eyes. In a chilling fashion, Bateman murders his colleague using an axe, all the while giving his victim an articulate summary of the song blaring through his speakers in the background, “Hip to Be Square” (1986) by Huey Lewis and the News. In his other murders, Bateman goes through a similar music-explaining procedure that adds another off-putting element to the already horrific event on screen. While it may not be enjoyable to watch, Christian Bale’s portrayal of the sadistic character is phenomenal to say the least. As a viewer, it is hard to look past Bateman’s psychopathic behavior, but the time he spends with his peers is actually quite thought-provoking. His colleagues are similarly materialistic, self-obsessed and sexist in a way that is quite appalling. They never seem to be working; in fact, they only seem to worry about whether they have the fanciest business card and if they have dinner reservations at the finest restaurant in the city. On top of it all, they never pay attention to the fairly clear warning signs of Bateman’s erratic behavior. And therein lies a more powerful message about the society in which he operates: everyone is self-consumed to the point where they do not even notice their colleague’s glaring psychological issues, which suggests that they, like Bateman, are insane in their own way. As mentioned previously, “American Psycho” is by no means a flawless film, but it is hard to deny that it is relevant today. “Joker” offers a somewhat similar outlook on insanity, as both films juxtapose a psychopathic murderer as its unreliable narrator with a conformist society to suggest that psychological issues are even more complex than they may seem. Peter Lindblom is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Peter can be reached at peter.lindblom@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY | Comics | Wednesday, February 12, 2020

F &G FUN & GAMES

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Alex: “The fact is that choccy milk is better than regular milk.”

SUDOKU

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

Aquarius (Jan. 20–Feb. 18)

Your studies offer new views and perspectives. Explore the wider world, when traffic allows. Monitor local conditions for your destination. Keep plans simple and practical.

Difficulty Level: When you think you’re recording an interview but aren’t.

Tuesday’s Solutions

CROSSWORD

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Opinion

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Sarah Kaplan Funding Our Future

Swipe it only so far forward

y stomach panged with hunger, but it was only hour 12. I distracted myself with exactly what any other 18-yearold would have: the endless world of Facebook. As I scrolled through my feed, I discovered a link to a Tufts online form allowing me to donate some of my meal swipes. I had never seen this program advertised, spread on social media or even presented during orientation. I eagerly clicked on the link to see what I could do. It was Yom Kippur, I was fasting and I gladly donated what meal swipes I could. But why did it take someone’s Facebook post for me to learn about this? Shouldn’t this initiative have been introduced during orientation? I was thrilled to have found the form but frustrated that I hadn’t found it earlier. While I recognize that I am a firstyear, and there is a significant learning curve to familiarizing myself with the institutions — both formal and informal — on campus, it is unacceptable that it took until October for me to learn about the ability to donate my meal swipes. The program I discovered is Swipe it Forward, an initiative launched in 2017 by a collaboration of student and university organizations on campus. Swipe it Forward allows students with the Premium meal plan to donate one meal and one guest meal per semester, and students with other plans to donate up to four meals per semester. The initiative was created to address student food insecurity at Tufts, allowing students to give their meal swipes to a bank of swipes that can be accessed by other students. In April 2019, Swipe it Forward expanded its program by automatically depositing one meal swipe for every student on the Premium meal plan into the meal bank. This ensures that the meal bank has a strong supply at the beginning of the year. But this change did not address the egregious disparity in swipes left over and swipes to donate each semester. Last semester, I only used 200 of my 400 swipes from my Premium meal plan. The excessive amount of meal swipes given to, or rather required to be purchased by, firstyears is a topic for another article. With the given system, it is absurd that students on the Premium meal plan cannot donate more than two swipes each semester. Students on all meal plans should be able to donate as many meal swipes as they have left over; after all, students pay for those swipes and should not see them go to waste when other students need meals. At the very least, students on the Premium meal plan should be able to donate four swipes per semester as other students can with different meal plans. Truly though, any swipes left over should be swipes donated. If you wish to donate some of your meal swipes, please follow this link: http:// students.tufts.edu/identity-based-centers/ first-resource-center/financial-resources-through-first/food-insecurities/donate. Sarah Kaplan is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Sarah can be reached at sarah.kaplan@tufts.edu.

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Sports

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Aiden Herrod The Turf Monster

Baseball’s bloated contracts are strategic nightmares

emember when star baseball sluggers Bryce Harper and Manny Machado dominated free agency talk all winter long, waited eons, and finally signed massive, $300 million-plus contracts with the Phillies and Padres respectively? Yeah, me neither. Both teams missed the playoffs and the baseball world moved onto a new pair of million dollar darlings in Gerrit Cole and Anthony Rendon, both of whom signed similarly massive contracts this past off-season. In honor of football ending and everything being worse, I want to turn my attention to the coming baseball season. My way of starting that is to air my grievances about one of baseball’s most splashy off-season occurrences: massive multiyear contracts totaling hundreds of millions of dollars over countless years. I do not agree with a single contract handed out in this regard. Committing to an athlete at the highest level for a span of time surpassing five years is extremely risky. Careers turn on a dime, and unforeseen injuries and developments can easily crop up when players are subjected to the grueling routines of their sport for years on end. Is baseball different? To a degree, there might be more longevity for an average baseball player. The average retirement age is far higher than football, and many players retire later than their counterparts in the NBA and NHL. But baseball is a game of numbers. Batting average, home runs, power hitting metrics, fastball speed, all of it is subject to harsh regression. What baseball gains in a potentially higher average retirement age, it loses in statistical consistency for the vast majority of players. Contracts as large as Harper’s or Machado’s are the product of the right place at the right time. Players are paid for hitting free agency after an ideal season in an ideal market, where there are enough teams that blend competitive standing, money available and positional need. Far more deserving players could get snubbed for not even half as much, while far less deserving players can have money thrown on them in desperation. Now don’t get me wrong — I am 110% an advocate for player empowerment in professional sports. Athletes deserve the financial security of multiyear contracts, and more often than not the contracts handed to them are appropriately rewarding. But franchises in baseball take immense risks that are rarely met with reward when they put such massive financial stakes into one or two individual players. The only teams bearing such massive contracts I expect to be good are the ones that already throw boatloads of money at all their assets, regardless of luxury tax implications. Aiden Herrod is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Aiden can be reached at aiden.herrod@tufts.edu.

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Women’s track and field hosts Cupid Challenge by Maggie Basinger Contributing Writer

The women’s track and field team hosted the Cupid Challenge on Saturday in the Gantcher Center. The Jumbos had four first-place finishes, performing exceptionally well in the jump events. The meet, which had athletes competing mostly from New England Div. III teams, did not have team scoring, “I’m excited about the jumps because our coach was pushing us to improve,” first-year Jaidyn Appel said. “It was good to see our results.” In the high jump, Appel came in first at 5’ 7 ¾”. This mark currently places her No. 4 on the Div. III rankings. “I’m happy about it,” Appel said. “But it was what I expected of myself, so I wasn’t surprised.” Additionally, in the triple jump, Jumbos secured the top three places out of a field of 22. First-year Lia Rotti placed first with a 37’ 4½” jump, good for No. 20 in Div. III. Fellow first-year Jen Rotti, who is Lia Rotti’s twin sister, came in second place with a 36’ 11¾” jump. This distance also currently places her No. 29 in Div. III. Sophomore Kathryn Ezeoha placed third in the event with a 36’ 6¼” jump. This success continued in the long jump event. Continuing her stellar performance from the triple jump into the long jump, Jen Rotti placed first at 17’ 6 ¾”. “I’m happy with how it went,” Jen Rotti said about the meet. “It was good to see all of our hard work pay off.” The Jumbos performed well in many of the sprinting events as well. Sophomore Luana Machado got first place in the 600 meters, finishing in 1:39.24. There were also Jumbos finishing in sixth place, seventh place, ninth place and 11th place in the 600 meters, which had 20 runners total.

ERIK BRITT / TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Senior co-captain Julia Gake races at the Branwen Smith-King Invitational on Jan. 27, 2018. For longer distance events, sophomore Tara Lowensohn placed third in the 1,000 meters with a time of 3:01.58. Following only 0.17 seconds behind Lowensohn, sophomore Anna Slager finished in fourth place at 3:01.75. In the 5,000 meters, first-year Meghan Davis finished with a time of 18:25.5, placing her third in the race. This was only Davis’s second indoor meet and the first time running the 5,000 meters, after running in the fall during cross country season. In the 4×200 meters relay, the Jumbos came in third place. Machado and firstyears Jesse Martin, Cora Kakalec and Julia Perugini ran the relay in a combined time of 1:47.40. In the distance medley relay, the Jumbos again came in third place.

Senior co-captains Rhemi Toth and Julia Gake, sophomore Hannah Neilon and senior Sabrina Gornisiewicz ran the relay in 12:13.13. This time currently puts them No. 4 in the top 50 rankings for distance medley relays in Div. III. With two weeks until the New England Div. III Indoor Championships on Feb. 28 and 29, the Jumbos will send athletes to two different meets this weekend: the David Hemery Valentine Invite at Boston University on Friday and Saturday and the Gordon Kelly Invitational at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Saturday. “The current goal is to improve our rankings in our specific events,” Jen Rotti said. “Everyone is working hard and hopefully we’ll get to see it pay off.”

email to the Daily. “Anchoring our distance medley relay to a (likely) NCAA biding then coming back to win the 600 in a Tufts AllTime Top 10 time was very impressive. Over his 4 years here Matt has proven that he is one of the most gutsy and talented mid-distance runners I’ve seen.” Personal records were not only a theme for D’Anieri — who has notched three for this season in the 600 meters, 1,000 meters and mile races — but for many other athletes, ranging from the long distance and mid-distance races to the pole vaulting and throwing events. Senior Roman Lovell ran a 1:55.56 personal record in the 800 meters, finishing in third place. Lovell’s finish currently ranks No. 22 in Div. III. In the long distance events, senior Taylor Wurts broke his personal record 3,000 meter time with a ninth place finish at 8:56.03, while junior Harry Steinberg achieved his personal best in the 5,000 meters, placing second with a time of 15:03.49, which currently ranks No. 28 in Div. III. Apart from the abilities of the athletes, Steinberg credited the personal successes to a variety of confidence boosting factors. “We had five or six personal bests,” Steinberg said. “It’s an exciting time of year when you come after winter break and it’s a time when you get the first training block in.” Steinberg also noted that the team had a lot of home meets this season

and they know the facility and competition well. The younger members of the team did not disappoint either, with first-year Hunter Farrell matching his previous personal best of 14’ 7.25” in the pole vault, maintaining a mark that ranks No. 48 in Div. III. First-year Raphael Obu threw 42’′ 6’’″ in the weight throw, a personal best and an improvement of nearly nine feet compared to his last competition. “Raphael had never touched a shot or weight prior to December,” Williams wrote. “His throw in the weight throw on Saturday was not only a 2.5m/9ft [a personal record], but it catapulted him into the Tufts Freshman Top 10 at #7. He is a fantastic athlete and his hard work is starting to pay off!” With their confidence growing, the Jumbos now head into the latter part of the season and are preparing for the New England Div. III Indoor Championships on Feb. 28 and 29. This weekend, the team will compete at Boston University’s (BU) David Hemery Valentine Invite and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Gordon Kelly Invitational. “We send our top runners to BU because it is one of the fastest tracks in the country and the intensity of the meet always helps produce great marks,” Williams said in the email. “MIT has a great venue for the field events so we always get lots of championship qualifying marks there as well!”

Men’s track and field sets several personal records at Cupid Challenge by Arnav Sacheti

Contributing Writer

The men’s track and field team hosted the annual Cupid Challenge on Saturday at the Gantcher Center. The team won only one event, but athletes earned top five finishes in several events, and four of Tufts’ results rank in the top 50 for Div. III track and field. One of the most impressive results on the day was the distance medley relay (DMR) team consisting of sophomore Nick Delaney, first-year Andrii Campbell, first-year Evan Ensslin and senior Matt D’Anieri. The team finished in second place with a time of 10:00.29, only behind the squad from Div. II American International College, which set the Gantcher Center facility record. This performance gives the Jumbos a chance to qualify for the national NCAA Div. III meet with their DMR squad, as that time currently ranks No. 1 nationally in Div. III. D’Anieri doubled events in this meet, also placing first in the 600 meters with a personal best time of 1:22.06 — the only win at the meet for the Jumbos. Coach Joel Williams commented on D’Anieri’s contribution to the team in competing in the two events. “Doubling in the mid distance races is incredibly difficult, but Matt made it look like an easy day,” Williams wrote in an